Ortus Christi : meditations for Advent

JOHN M. KELLY LIBRARY

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ORTUS CHRISTI

Works by the same Author

SPONSA GHRISTI

Meditations on the Religious Life.

PASSIO GHRISTI

Meditations for Lent.

MATER GHRISTI

Meditations on Our Lady.

DONA GHRISTI

Meditations for Ascension-tide,
Whitsun-tide and Corpus Ghristi.

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ORTUS CHRISTI

Meditations for Advent

BY
MOTHER ST. PAUL

RELIGIOUS OF THE 1ETREAT OH THE SACRED HEART

HOUSE OF RETREATS — BIRMINGHAM

AUTHOR OF

'SPONSA CHRISTI" * "PASSIO CHRISTI" * "MATER CHRISTI'
"DONA CHRISTI" ETC.

PREFACE BY

REV. JOSEPH RICKABY. S.J.

' Ambulabunt gentes in

•es in splendore ortus tm\
(Is. Ix. 3)

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Die 19 Aprilis 1921.

PREFACE.

Reading these Meditations we discover with sur
prise how much spiritual food is obtainable from a
study of the lessons and liturgy of Advent. Mother
St. Paul is always a heart-searcher. She presses self-
reform upon souls, who to the eye of outward observ
ers and perhaps in their own conceit, have little
or nothing to amend. We must always be following
Christ, and Christ is ever moving forward. Deliber
ately to stand still is to widen the distance between
ourselves and Him, an ungenerous, not to say a
dangerous thing to do. What are called here Medi
tations may well be taken for daily spiritual reading
in preparation for Christmas. Advent after all is a
season of joy, and these Meditations must be taken
in a joyful spirit. Courage and enthusiasm in the
cause of Christ is the supreme need of all Catholics
who really love His coming. (2 Tim. iv : 8)

JOSEPH RICKABY. S. J.

St. Beuno's College.

NOTE.

Although there are twenty-eight Meditations given
in this book they will not all be needed every year,
for the length of Advent varies between twenty-two
and twenty-eight days. The Third Sunday of Advent
may fall as late as December ijth. (the first day of
the "Great O's") and the Fourth Sunday of Advent
be Christmas Eve. The plan suggested, which will
suit all years, is to use No. i on Advent Sunday
and the rest according to choice till December 17*^ ;
from then to December 24^ Nos 21 — 28 should be
used.

CONTENTS.

PAGE

1. Ortus Christi (Advent I) i

2. Our Lady's Rest 6

3. My Sins — A Triptych n

4. The Last Judgment 16

5. Traders and Talents 21

6. "Stir up!" 27

7. St. John the Baptist, i His Preparation 33

8. „ ,, ,, ,, 2 His Mission . . 39

9. „ „ „ „ 3 His Testimony. 44

10. „ „ „ „ 4 His Martyrdom 49

11. „ „ „ „ 5 His Character . 53

12. "Incarnatus est" 58

13. "Ex Maria Virgine" 63

14. "The Lord is nigh" (Advent III) ... 67

15. The Interior Life, i Humility .... 73

16. „ „ „ 2 Oblation .... 77

17. ,, „ „ 3 Imprisonment . . 81

18. „ „ „ 4 Hiddenness ... 85
19- » » » 5 Prayer 89

20. „ „ „ 6 Zeal 93

21. O Sapientia December ifth. 99

22. O Adonai (Expectation of

Our Lady) „ i8*h. 104

23. O Radix Jesse ,, *9th- IIQ

24. O Clavis David „ 2O*h. 114

CONTENTS

25. O Oriens (Feast of St. Thomas) Dec. 2ist. n8

26. O Rex Gentium „ 22nd. 123

27. O Emmanuel „ 2^d. 127

28. Christmas Eve „ 2tfh. 130

PRAYERS.

O God Who didst please that
Thy Word should take flesh,
at the message of an Angel,
in the womb of the Blessed
Virgin Mary; grant to Thy
suppliants that we who believe
her to be truly the Mother of
God, may be helped by her
intercession.

(Collect for the Annunciation, said at Mass every

day during Advent.)

Deus, qui de beatae Mariae
Virginis utero, Verbum Tuum,
Angelo nuntiante, carnem sus-
cipere voluisti : praesta supplic-
ibus Tuis ut qui vere earn
Genitricem Dei credimus, ejus
apud Te intercessionibus adju-
vemur.

Omnipotens sempiterne Deus,
qui gloriosae Virginis Matris
Mariae corpus et animam, ut
dignum Filii tui habitaculum
effici mereretur, Spiritu sancto
cooperante, praeparasti : da, ut
cujus commemoratione laeta-
mur, ejus pia intercessione, ab
instantibus mails, et a morte
perpetua liberemur.

Almighty, everlasting God,
Who by the co-operation of
the Holy Ghost didst prepare
the body and soul of the glo
rious Virgin Mother Mary to
become a habitation meet for
Thy Son ; grant that as we
rejoice in her commemoration,
we may, by her loving inter
cession, be delivered from pre
sent evils and from everlasting
death.

(Collect said at Office after the Salve Regina.}

Conscientias nostras, quae-
sumus Domine, visitando pu-
rifica, ut veniens JESUS Chris-
tus Filius Tuus Dominusnoster
cum omnibus Sanctis, paratam
Sibi in nobis inveniat man-
sionem.

Purify our consciences, we
beseech Thee O Lord, by Thy
visitation, that when Thy Son
JESUS Christ our Lord shall
come with all His Saints, He
may find a mansion prepared
in us for Himself.
(Little Office B. V. M. Vespers for Advent.)

PRAYER OF VEN. FATHER OLIER.

O JESUS, vivens in Maria,
Veni et vive in famulis Tuis,
In spiritu sanctitatis Tuae,
In plenitudine virtutis Tuae,
In veritate virtutum Tuarum,
In perf ectione viarum Tuarum,
In communione mysteriorum

[Tuorum ;
Dominare omni adversae

[potestati,
In Spiritu Tuo, ad gloriam

[Patris.
Amen.

O JESUS, living in Mary,
Come and live in Thy servants,
In the spirit of Thy sanctity,
In the fulness of Thy strength,
In the reality of Thy virtues,
In the perfection of Thy ways,
In the communion of Thy

[mysteries.

Dominate over every opposing
[power,
In Thine own Spirit, to the

[glory of the Father.
Amen.

(300 days, once a day, Pius IX, Oct. 14 1859.)

Sancta Dei Genitrix, ora pro nobis.

Mater Christi,

Vas spirituale,

Vas honorabile,

Vas insigne devotionis,

Turris Davidica,

Turris, eburnea

Domus aurea,

Foederis area,

Janua coeli,

ORTUS CHRISTI.

Advent Sunday.

'* Arise, be enlightened,., for thy light is come, and the glory of
the Lord is risen upon thee... The Lord shall arise upon thee...
the Gentiles shall walk in thy light.and kings in the brightness
of thy rising (ortus). (Is. LX. 1-3)

ist Prelude. A picture of the first streaks of dawn.
2nd Prelude, Grace to arise because the Light has
come.

POINT I. THE RISING OF CHRIST.

The Church begins her new liturgical year with
the words: "Ad Televavi animam meant" — To Thee
have I lifted up my soul ("Introit" for to-day) -
as though she were straining her eyes to try to see
something on the horizon. She cannot see anything
very definite yet, but she is full of hope. Deus
meus, in Te confido, non erubescam - - My God I
trust in Thee, let me not be ashamed, do not let
me lift up my eyes in vain, she cries; and she
keeps on looking. This will be her attitude all
through the season of Advent, an attitude of expect
ancy, of waiting, of hope, of trust, of prayer.
We know for what she is waiting - - the Ortus
Christi — the Rising of Christ. "The Lord shall
arise upon thee" is the promise. "To thee have I
lifted up my soul" is her response. What is in her
mind when she sees those first streaks of light ? They
are to her an earnest of what is coming, an earnest of
the Advent of her Lord. St. Bernard says that His
Advent is threefold, that He comes in three different
ways : (i) In the flesh and in weakness, (2) in the
spirit and in power, (3) in glory and in majesty.

2 ORTUS CHRISTI

The Church knows how much these three Comings
mean to her children, and so at the first sign of dawn
she forgets the long weary night, and calls to each
one: "Arise, be enlightened for thy light is come, and
the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee". "Behold the
Bridegroom cometh, go ye forth to meet Him".

Let us then begin our Advent in the spirit of
the Church. Let us arise once more as she bids us,
rouse ourselves that is, to look with her at the
dawn, while we say to ourselves : "Behold He cometh
leaping upon the mountains, skipping over the hills.
Behold He standeth behind our wall, looking through
the windows, looking through the lattices". As we
look we hear the voice of our Beloved, He is
speaking to His Church. What has He to say as
soon as He comes in sight ? "Arise, make haste,
my love, my dove, my beautiful one, and come"
(Cant. n. 8-10). It is the same injunction: "Arise".

POINT II. THE RISING OF THE CHURCH.

If the Bridegroom is rising, it is evident that the
Bride must do the same. He is rising to come to
His Bride, she must rise to go to Him. How? By
meditating on His Advents ; by thanking Him once
more for them ; by asking herself what use she has
made of them hitherto, what use she intends to
make during this New Year that is beginning; by
preparing herself for them ; by remembering that as
His Bride she has a very real share in each.

i. The past Coming, "in the flesh and in weak
ness". We shall think about this coming more
especially at Christmas, for which the season of
Advent is a preparation. "The bright and morning
star" (Apoc. xxn. 16.) will by then have risen in
all its fulness. The Word will be made Flesh and
once more we shall rise in the "quiet silence" of
the night to worship our God "in the flesh and in
weakness".

ORTUS CHRISTI 3

2. The present Coming, "in the spirit and in power"
— His Coming in grace to the soul, to dwell with
it by His Spirit. "In power" •- because only He
Who is omnipotent could work such a stupendous
miracle as the miracle of grace. This miracle could
never have been worked, had it not been for the
first Coming. "The Word was made Flesh" that He
might by His death redeem His people and restore
to them the kingdom of grace which they had lost
in Adam. This second Coming is to prepare us for
the third.

3. The future Coming, in "glory and in majesty"
when He shall "come again with glory to judge
both the living and the dead", and when all will
be forced to rise and go to meet Him whether they
will or not. It is those, who have risen voluntarily to
meet their God in His second Coming, who will
have no fear of the third. The second Coming, then,
the Coming in grace, is the most practical one for us
as we begin our Advent, and upon it we will meditate
in our third point.

POINT III. THE DWELLING OF THE BLESSED
TRINITY WITHIN us.

This is what God's Coming in grace means — a
soul in the state of grace is the host of the Blessed
Trinity, neither more nor less. "We will come to Him
and will make our abode with him," (St. John xiv.
23.) and from the moment that grace enters, the
soul becomes the abode of God the Father, God
the Son and God the Holy Ghost.

It was at the moment of Baptism that our souls
were raised to the dignity of being hosts of God
Himself. What happened then ? God added to the
natural gifts with which He had endowed man
sw/jtfrnatural ones, summed up in the gift of grace.
What is that ? A participation in His own life,

4 ORTUS CHRISTI

something which makes us "partakers of the Divine
nature". (2 Pet. I. 4). He created man thus in the
beginning, for He meant man always to possess
supernatural as well as natural gifts. He meant
always to live with man and talk and walk with
him in the paradise of his soul ; but Adam chased
out the Divine Guest and lost this miraculous
privilege for all his children. God, however, could
not rest content to be outside the souls which He
had created solely that He might live in them, and
He devised a way (the first Coming of Christ) by
which He might get back to the dwelling which
He cherished so much. We need not follow the
beautiful story of the Redemption through all its
wondrous steps, we know it well enough ; we will
take it up at Baptism, when the divine gift of life
which Adam lost was restored to the soul, when
God came back to His chosen dwelling, and the
soul regained its responsible position of host to the
Blessed Trinity. When Satan had noticed that the
soul was left exposed, that it was a human soul
only, with nothing divine about it, he naturally had
taken possession, as he does of all empty houses;
(St. Matt. xii. 44.) so at Baptism the Priest said :
"Depart from him, thou unclean spirit, and give
place to the Holy Ghost". Where the Holy Ghost
is, there are also the Father and the Son. The
Blessed Trinity, then, waits to take possession of
each soul, waits to come back to Its own, waits to
restore the privilege that man had at the beginning.
Thus the new creation takes place, and the
soul is no longer a human soul only, but divine,
for the Divine Life within has made it one with
Itself. Does man realize this privilege and rise to it ?
No ! For the greater part of Christians we are obliged
to say : No. As soon as they come to years of
discretion, they invite back the unclean spirit and
chase out their Divine Guest. What base ingra-

ORTUS CHRISTI 5

titude ! And what folly ! But God, who is rich in
mercy is not repelled by such conduct ; His one
thought is to go back to His Temple which has been
so profaned, and the scheme of Redemption included
a method, (the Sacrament of Penance,) whereby, if
man would, he could drive out the devil and invite
back the Divine Guest. Is God angry? Does He
upbraid ? Does He allude to the past and throw
doubts on the future ? No, He loves, and all He
asks in return is love. Such is our Guest !

Now what is my side of this great question ? I am,
or if I am not, I can be, a Temple of God. God is
living within me. How much do I think about it ?
I often talk about recalling the Presence of God,
but it is His Presence within me that I have to
recall. I make Acts of Contrition, of Love. To Whom?
To the God within me. Do not let me forget that
my heart is an altar where I can, whenever I will,
adore God. He is there to walk with me and talk
to me as He did to Adam of old. He wants me to
live side by side with Him, and talk to Him as
naturally as I do to my friend.

Let me try this Advent, as one of the best ways
of preparing for the Coming of Christ at Christmas,
and for His Coming in judgment, to realize what the
supernatural life means, what God in me means,
what it means to be the host always of God Himself.
The realization will transform my life, will alter
my point of view, will change me from a mediocre
Christian into one who is filled with a great idea
and who is occupied with it every moment of his
time — an idea which is ever stimulating him to
aim higher. God in me — then I am never alone,
my life is intimately bound up with God's life. I
am a partaker of His nature. O my God, forgive
me for having thought of it so little ; help me to
rise to my great privileges. I thank thee for letting
a few streaks of Th Divine Light reach my dark

6 ORTUS CHRISTI

soul, and by the time that the Sun of Justice has
risen in all His splendour this Advent, may my
soul be flooded with the new light which the realiz
ation of the Divine Presence within it, will surely
bring.

Colloquy with God within me.

Resolution. To realize this truth to-day, and every
day more and more.

Spiritual Bouquet. "We will come to Him and
make our abode with Him."

OUR LADY'S REST.

"In omnibus requiem quae- In all these I sought rest,

sivi, et in hereditate Domini and I shall abide in the in-

morabor". heritance of the Lord.

(Ecclus. xxiv. n)

ist Prelude. A statue of Our Lady.
2nd Prelude. Grace to "abide in the inheritance of
the Lord."

That the Church intends us to spend the season of
Advent with our Blessed Mother is quite evident to
anyone who takes the trouble to study the Liturgy.
The Bridegroom is coming, but it is through the
Virgin-Mother that He will come; and if we would
be amongst the first to greet Him, if we desire a large
share of His grace, if we would have no fear of His
judgments, we must keep close to Mary.

POINT I. "I SHALL ABIDE IN THE INHERITANCE OF THE

LORD."

The Church applies these words to Mary ; let us try
to see what they mean and how far we may copy her
in her determination. "The inheritance of the Lord,"

OUR LADY'S REST 7

what is it ? The words bear many interpretations
but we cannot be wrong, surely, in thinking that this
inheritance was Mary's own soul ; it was indeed
"the inheritance of the Lord", an inheritance to which
the Blessed Trinity had a special right, the Father
because He had created her in grace, the Son because
He had saved her from the stain of original sin, the
Holy Ghost because He had ever sanctified her and
kept her "full of grace". But what was it that
made this inheritance more pleasing to God than
any of the other souls which He had redeemed ? Mary's
correspondence with grace we naturally answer ; but
what do we mean by that ? We mean, or we ought
to mean, that Mary realized to the full that God the
Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost
lived within her ; and hence her resolution to abide in
"the inheritance of the Lord", never to leave her
Divine Guest, never to forget that she was the host
and that it was her privilege to entertain. This is surely
the secret of Mary's life and of her correspondence
with grace. She dwelt in closest union with the God
who dwelt within her.

POINT II. "IN ALL THINGS I SOUGHT REST".

Where did she seek this rest, this calm of which her
whole life speaks? Within her own soul with her
Divine Guest, in other words Mary lived an interior
life. She preferred a live inside with God, to one
outside in the world. Hers was a continual realization
of God's Presence — of God's Presence within her ;
and it was this realization which enabled her to find
rest in every circumstance of her chequered life.
She did not allow outward events to mar her interior
calm. Her Divine Guest was always there and to Him
she could always turn. The consequence was that she
was never agitated, disquieted, excited, anxious,
troubled. She dwelt "in the inheritance of the Lord,"

8 ORTUS CHRISTI

and there she sought rest in all things whether it
was in :

The joy of the Archangel's visit, or the difficulty
of her visit to Elizabeth.

The anguish of the reception at Bethlehem, or the
joy at the birth of her Son.

The Angels who sang : Glorias at His birth, or the
neighbours who made unkind remarks.

The shepherds who came to worship in their poverty,
or the Wise Men in all their pomp and splendour.

The ecstasy caused by her Babe's smile, or the dis
tress caused by His tears.

The words of the Angel: "Of His Kingdom there
shall be no end", or the words of Simeon : He shall
be "a sign which shall be contradicted."

The peaceful home-life with JESUS and Joseph, or
the hurried flight into Egypt.

The anguish of losing Him (Desolation), or the joy
of finding Him (Consolation).

The active work for the little household, or the
times of contemplation at JESUS' feet.

The long, happy days at Nazareth with her Son,
or the sad day when He left His Mother's roof.

The account of His success : "All men go to Him",
or the account of His failure: "They all forsook Him
and fled."

The cry : "Hosannah, blessed is He !" or the cry :
"Crucify Him, crucify Him! it is not fit that He
should live".

The agony of watching Him suffer and die, or the
delight of seeing His glorified Body.

The pain of being left in exile on earth, or the joy of
hearing Him say: "Arise, My fair one and come, the
winter is over."

In omnibus requiem quaesivi. — Not that all these
things were the same to her, not that she was indifferent
or did not care, she cared more than anyone else could,

OUR LADY'S REST 9

for her heart was perfect and therefore more delicate
and sensitive than any other except the Sacred Heart
of JESUS. What then was her secret ? That she lived
with the Blessed Trinity, and that made her see God's
Will in all that happened to her, and see it so vividly
that she almost lost sight of the particular circum
stances, and hardly knew whether they were painful
or joyful. The pain was a joy because it was God's
Will, and the joy was only a joy because it was God's
Will ; so she never wanted to change any thing. She
sought rest in the holy habitation, the "home of the
Blessed Trinity ; she pondered things over in her
heart, that is, she talked about them with her Divine
Guest.

POINT III. THE CHILD OF MARY.

The child must copy the Mother. How is it with
me ? Surely if anyone ought to realize the Divine
Presence within, it is a child of Mary! How far do I copy
Our Lady in her interior life ? What do I know of that
deep calm within, into which I can always retire and
seek rest, and where I can, if I will, rest so entirely
that outward circumstances make little difference ?
If I have made the same resolution as Our Lady ;
namely, to "abide in the inheritance of the Lord"; pain
and anxiety and difficulty will be an actual source
of joy, because they afford an excuse for an extra
visit to the Home within, and for longer convers
ations than usual with my loved Guest. If a dif
ficulty or a humiliation or something that I do not
like comes in my way, I shall not be troubled, my
first thought will be with my Divine Guest. He has
permitted this, even planned^ it. I will go and talk to
Him about it, find out what He means, what
He wants me to do and how I can best act in the cir
cumstances to gain glory for Him. This is what is
meant by the interior life, and it can be, it ought
to be, far stronger than the exterior. It means a holy

io ORTUS CHRISTI

indifference to everything except God's Will ; it means
rest and peace about everything that happens, without
any desire to have things altered ; it takes all anxiety
and disquiet and perplexity out of life and leaves a
great calm which nothing has the power to disturb
except a will in opposition to God's Will.

In omnibus requiem quaesivi. — Is it so very hard ?
Perhaps, for it means the spiritual life, and that
means a continual battle against self; but it is a
battle worth fighting. To fight is not only the way
to "seek rest", but it is also the surest way to obtain
it ; for they alone who are continually fighting to
keep the enemy out can hope to detain their Divine
Guest within.

Colloquy with Mary. Help me, my Mother, to dwell,
this Advent, in "the inheritance of the Lord", and
when outward things are too much for me and I am
apt to behave in a manner unworthy of a child of
thine, do thou lead me by the hand into the place of
rest and calm, where God Himself dwells, and where
I shall see things from His point of view.

"O God, who didst please that Thy Word should
take flesh, at the message of an angel, in the womb of
the Blessed Virgin Mary, grant to Thy suppliants,
that we who believe her to be truly the Mother of God
may be helped by her intercession."

(Collect to be said every day at Mass from Advent
to Christmas Eve.)

Resolution. To "abide in the inheritance of the
Lord" to-day.

Spiritual Bouquet. "In all things I sought rest."

MY SINS — A TRIPTYCH.

"The night is past, and the day is at hand ; let us therefore

cast off the works of darkness and put on the armour of light".

[From the "Epistle" for the First Sunday of Advent.]

i st. Prelude. The Foot of the Cross where my
sins have all been laid.

2nd. Prelude. The grace of contrition and firm
resolution.

It is clear from the words which she has chosen
for her "Epistle" for the First Sunday of Advent
that the Church intends us during this solemn
season to think about sin, — the darkness of the
past night and the light of the day that is coming
and our duty with regard to both. It is not sin in
the abstract, but our own personal sins that we
are to consider. "Let us cast off the works of
darkness". If the Apostle Paul included himself in
that "us", we need not fear to do the same. It is
meet, when we are thinking on the one hand of
Him Who is coming to save us from our sins and
on the other of His coming to judge us "according
to our works", that we should give some thought
to those sins. Nothing will better help us to under
stand the mercy of the Saviour and the justice of
the Judge than a meditation upon our own sins.
God forgets the sins He has forgiven, but it is
better for us, more wholesome and more humiliating,
to remember them sometimes. David says: "My
sin is always before me", (Ps. L. 5). The object of
this meditation, then, is not to cause trouble in the
soul — trouble about sins that are forgiven can
only come from the devil — but to excite in us a
deeper contrition, more gratitude and a greater
watchfulness.

12 ORTUS CHRISTI

POINT I. A TRIPTYCH — MY SINS.

Am I to consider all the sins of my life ? The
subject seems so vast, it is difficult to know how
to condense it so that I may be able to bring it
within my grasp. All sin may be summed up in
one word — disobedience — non serviam. It was
the sin of the Angels, it was the sin of our first
parents and it is at the root of every sin that has
ever been committed. God says: Thou shalt not,
the sinner says : I will. God says : Do this and
thou shalt live; the sinner says : I will not, I would
rather die. Sin is man's will in opposition to God's
Will. This thought simplifies the subject and
makes it easier for me to call up the sins of my
life and look at them. Let me make a picture of
them — a triptych, a picture, that is, with three
panels side by side, the middle one shall be called
Places, that on the right hand Persons and that on
the left Work.

i. Places. As I look at the middle picture I see
it consists of numbers and numbers of small ones,
each representing some place that is familiar to
me — there is the house where I was born, there
the school I attended, houses I have visited, hotels
where I have stayed, gardens, playgrounds, lonely
roads, walks on cliffs, villages, towns, churches, the
sea-side, trams, omnibuses, trains, boats, bicycles,
carriages, stations .... I am fascinated and cannot
help looking still, though the variety and number
are almost bewildering. Each picture is so familiar;
some awaken sweet and precious memories, from
some I quickly turn away my eyes. All can witness
to my presence, how many can witness also to my
sins ? "Indeed the Lord is in this place, and / knew
it not." (Gen xxvm 16). That may to some
extent be true and if so there is One who is always
ready to say : "Father, forgive them for they know

MY SINS — A TRIPTYCH 13

not what they do". / know how much I knew,
and the best thing, the only thing for me to do is
to make an Act of Contrition.

2. Persons. I turn to the right hand panel and
there are crowds and crowds of faces, each one
familiar — father, mother, brothers, sisters, rela
tions, servants, teachers, scholars, friends, enemies,
priests, confessors, acquaintances . . . what impression
have I left upon each of these ? If they could be
called up and asked: "What did you think of so
and so"? what would they have to say ? They
would have something, for I left some impression
— and yet none of them know me as I really am.
The three Persons of the Blessed Trinity have been
near me always and always observant. They really
know me. What have They to say ? "If Thou, O
Lord, wilt mark iniquities, Lord, who shall stand it?"
(Ps. cxxix 3).

This picture makes me sad! That is just what
Our Lord wants from this meditation. Let me offer
once more my heartfelt contrition and He will be
glad that I had the courage to open the triptych.

3. Work. As I turn to the panel on the left
feel that I can breathe more freely — my work
will certainly give satisfaction! It is something
to be proud of; I have always got on well; I have
never been idle and I have had a certain measure
of success, and I feel that in that respect at any
rate my life will bear inspection. But this picture
too, as I look at it, seems to be divided up. Yes,
I can see quite clearly all the different works upon
which I have been engaged. All are very familiar
and bring back for the most part happy memories,
but some of them seem to be labelled. --What is it
that is written across them? "You did it to Me".
And all the rest that have no labels ? They do not
count — so evidently considered the One Who put
on the labels. He left them, passed them over,

14 ORTUS CHRISTI

there was nothing there for Him. But that hospital
that was founded is not labelled, nor that legacy
promised for a charitable purpose ! Surely some of
these without labels are "good works"! And these
that are labelled are such insignificant things,
things I should never have remembered at all if
they were not in the picture — a kind word, a
smile, a hasty word kept back because I knew it
would pain Him, suffering cheerfully borne because
I wanted to be like Him who suffered for me. Why
these and not those ? Because He prefers little
things ? No, but because of the motive. Had the
hospital been built out of love for Him and His
sick, had it been built for the glory of God and
not for the glory of self, it too would have been
labelled. Had the hasty word been kept back that
others might notice my self-control, it would not
have been labelled. What counts with God is the inten
tion with which a thing is done. If it is done out
of love for Him, no matter how insignificant it
is, yea, no matter how badly done, it will surely
be labelled " You did it to Me," and it will last when
the mighty works that men have so much praised
are crumbling in the dust, labelled with another
label You did it not unto Me. Have I not need to make
another Act of Contrition as I think of my works,
my love of gain, my ambition, love of praise and
success, of the motives of my so-called works of
charity, of the times in which I have allowed my
work to take the first place in my life, while my
soul had to take the second ?

I shut up my triptych and leave it at Thy
Feet O my JESUS, where the Blood from Thy
Wounds may ever drip upon it, while I with Mag
dalen stoop and bathe Thy Feet with my tears.

MY SINS — A TRIPTYCH 15

POINT II. THE TRIPTYCH. — GOD'S MERCIES.

As I look up, I see my triptych opened again
and all the thousands of little pictures seem to be
transformed. Each one is speaking to me of God's
goodness and tenderness and love. How good it is
to turn away from my own misery to His infinite
mercy ; yea, more - to recognize that the one is
the cause of the other ! And this is what He wants.
If the sight of self does not lead me instinctively
to look at Christ, it is a very dangerous thing, for
it can only lead to despondency and discouragement.
The object of looking at self and its deeds is so to
look that everything good or evil may shrivel up
and disappear, till self is there no longer, but Christ
only and all He has done either for or through me.
As I gaze now at the picture, I no longer see the
places on earth which have known me for short
periods of time, but my place in Heaven which by
His mercy, if I persevere to the end, is to know
me through all eternity ; not my dear ones as I
saw them on earth, but as they are now in my
heavenly country waiting for me; not my innumerable
sins of omission, nor my "good works" done to
please self, but the work of Him who always pleased
His Father, work which has made up for all my
omissions, and which shines through every thing
that I have done for Him, making it, too, acceptable
to His Father. It seems to me now that I want to
linger over the picture, for His mercies are indeed
infinite, and I shall never be able to thank Him
enough for them.

But does He, the God of infinite mercy and
plenteous redemption, never look at my pictures?
He says : "I will forgive their iniquity, and I will
remember their sin no more" (Jer. xxxi 34); and
it is true. He will never open my triptych for the
sake of looking at my sins, but may He not open

16 ORTUS CHRISTI

it for the joy of seeing each of those thousands
of pictures shining with pearls — the tears of con
trition ? Do not let me disappoint Him. This is
the chalice of consolation which I can offer to the
Sacred Heart in reparation.

Colloquy with JESUS thanking Him for making
me look at my triptych and for all that He has
taught me in it.

Resolution. Never to look at my sins without at
once seeing Christ — a sight which will necessarily
produce humility, gratitude and contrition.

Spiritual Bouquet. "My sin is always before me"
but "Thou shalt give joy and gladness.... and
my mouth shall declare Thy praise" (Ps. L. 5, 10, 17).

THE LAST JUDGMENT.

'The powers of Heaven shall be moved; and then shall they see

the Son of Man coming in a cloud with great power and majesty"

(The "Gospel" for the ist. Sunday of Advent.)

ist. Prelude. The Last Day.

2nd. Prelude. Grace to meditate upon it.

The Church invites us during Advent to turn our
thoughts towards the Second Coming of Christ -
His Coming in judgment at the end of the world.
The subject of the Last Judgment is perhaps one
which we are rather inclined to avoid in our Medi
tations ; but it is one about which Our Blessed Lord
said a great deal ; it is continually mentioned, too,
in the Epistles and in the Apocalypse, and as we
shall most certainly take a part in that last great
scene of the world's drama, it is surely well for us
to have a rehearsal from time to time.

THE LAST JUDGMENT 17

POINT I. THE COMING OF THE JUDGE.

When will He come? God "hath appointed a
day wherein He will judge the world in equity by
the Man whom He hath appointed". (Acts xvn. 31.)
The day then is fixed, "but of that day and hour
no one knoweth, no not the Angels of Heaven, but
the Father alone". (St Matt, xxiv 36).

How will He come? He "shall so come as you
have seen Him going into Heaven" (Acts i. n),
the Angel told the Apostles who had just watched
His Ascension. He will come, that is, in His beau
tiful Resurrection Body, dazzling with brightness
and glory, with the wounds in Hands and Feet and
Side. He will come "with much power and majesty"
(St. Matt. xxiv. 30) for He will come to judge,
not to preach penance nor atone for sin ; He will
come unexpectedly "as a thief in the night" (i Thess.
v. 2) "at what hour you think not" (St. Luke,
xii. 40) ; He will come "with thousands of His
Saints" (Jude 14) for all those "who have slept
through JESUS will God bring with Him" (i Thess.
IV. 13) He will bring, too, "all the Angels with
Him" (St. Matt xxv. 31) ; He will come "with the
voice of an Archangel, and with the trumpet of
God" (I Thess. iv. 15) ; He will come "with the
clouds" (Apoc. 1.7) ; He will come "in the glory of
His Father with His Angels" (St. Matt. xvi. 27) ;
He will come "as light ning" (xxiv 27) and before
Him will come His Cross ~ "the sign of the Son of
man" in the heavens (verse 30), every eye shall see
it. What different emotions that sign will excite !

POINT II. THE EFFECTS OF His COMING.

"Every eye shall see Him, and they also that
pierced Him. And all the tribes of the earth shall
bewail themselves because of Him" (Apoc. i. 7).

"We shall all rise again", (i Cor. xv. 51).

i8 ORTUS CHRISTI

The sea wil give up the dead that are in it, and
death and hell. . . their dead that are in them. (Apoc,
xx. 13.)

"The dead who are in Christ shall rise first",
(i Thess. iv. 15).

';We shall be changed, for this corruptible must
put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on
immortality", (i Cor. xv. 52).

"He shall send His Angels with a trumpet, and
a great voice, and they shall gather together His
elect from the four winds." (St. Matt. xxiv. 31).

"Then we whoare alive, who are left, shall be caught
up together with them (those who died in Christ) in
the clouds to meet Christ." (i. Thess. iv, 16).

"Then shall He sit upon the seat of His Majesty,"
(St. Matt, xxv, 31) and "render to every man ac
cording to his works", (ch. xvi, 27).

Then "the heavens shall pass away with great
violence, and the elements shall be melted with heat,
and the earth and the works which are in it shall
be burnt up". (2 Pet. in, 10). And all these events
are to take place "in a moment, in the twinkling of
an eye' ! (i Cor. xv, 52).

With the vivid words of Scripture before us, it is
not difficult to make a picture of the scene — the
sign of the Cross where all can see it ; the voice of
the Archangel and the trumpet of God heralding the
approach of the Judge ; the Son of Man, coming in
the clouds with all His Angels and thousands of His
Saints (all those from Heaven and Purgatory) ; the
cries of those to whom His coming is as that of "a
thief in the night" (i Thess. v, 2); the shouts of joy
of "the children of light" (verse 5) ; the opening of
the graves, the sea giving up its dead and the re
union of each soul, whether from Heaven, Purgatory
or hell, with its body ; the changing of the bodies
of those who are living on the earth into Resurrec
tion bodies; then the great multitude of the elect

THE LAST JUDGMENT 19

clothed in their bodies of immortality rising to meet
their Lord in the air; then "the great white throne"
set up and He who is "appointed by God to be
Judge" (Acts, x, 42) taking His seat upon it, "His
garment .... white as snow. . . . His throne like flames
of fire.... thousands of thousands" ministering to
Him (Dan. vn, 9, 10) ; the dead, great and small,
standing in the presence of the throne (Apoc. xx,
12), "ten thousand times a hundred thousand" stan
ding before Him. (Dan. vn, 10).

POINT III. THE JUDGMENT.

(1) The Separation. Quickly the Angels separate
that vast multitude into two companies — those on
His right Hand and those on His left, the sheep
and the goats, those who are to enter into life ever
lasting and those who are to enter into everlasting
punishment (St. Matt, xxv, 46); those who have
been faithful over the few things entrusted to them
and those who have hidden their Lord's talent ;
those whose lamps are burning and those whose
lamps are going out. There is fixed a great chaos
between the two companies, so that they who would
pass from one side to the other cannot, it is too
late. (St. Luke xvi. 26).

(2) The books. "And the books were opened

and the dead were judged by those things which
were written in the books, according to their works."
"And another book was opened, which is the book
of life", and only "they that are written in the
book of life of the Lamb" shall enter Heaven.
(Apoc. xx, 12, xxi, 27). "Every man's work shall
be manifest" (i Cor. in, 13) ; "every idle word that
men shall speak, they shall render an account for
it in the day of Judgment" (St. Matt, xn, 36).
Then will be seen, and all will acknowledge it, the
triumph of right over wrong, the triumph of the

20 ORTUS CHRIST!

Kingdom, the triumph of Christ ; then will be ad
justed all that we have so often longed to adjust
but could not, for "let both grow together till the
harvest" was the King's order. Then will seeming
injustices be explained and crimes that have called
to Heaven for vengeance receive their just reward.
Then will the unanimous cry be : "The Lord He is
God", and all will be forced to add: "Hedoethall
things well."

(3) The Sentences. The are only two: (i) "Then
shall the King say to them that shall be on His
right Hand : Come, ye blessed of my Father, possess
you the kingdom prepared for you from the found
ation of the world". He tells them why they are
to have such a blessed reward — they have been
faithful subjects of their King during their lives on
earth, they have ministered to His needs, lived for
Him and not for self. They seem surprised, they
cannot remember doing acts of charity to their King
and He explains : "As long as you did it to one of
these My least brethren, you did it to Me". (St. Matt,
xxv 40). The sentence "Come" is pronounced on
those who lived their lives for their King, who did
all they had to do, no matter what it was, for Him,
thus uniting themselves with Him, and now He will
unite Himself with them for all eternity — "Come' \

(2) "Then He shall say to them also that shall
be on His left Hand : Depart from Me, you cursed,
into everlasting fire". And again He gives His
reasons for this terrible punishment — they would
not acknowledge Him as their King, would not serve
Him, lived for self instead of for Him and His
brethren : "As long as you did it not to one of
these least, neither did you do it to Me" (verse 45).
During their lives they separated themselves from
the King and His interests : "We will not have this
Man to reign over us "; now He will separate Himself
from them for all eternity. — "Depart from Mel"

THE LAST JUDGMENT 21

Then He "will say to the reapers : Gather up
first the cockle, and bind it into bundles to burn,
but the wheat gather ye into My barn". (St. Matt,
xin. 30). "The Angels shall go out, and shall
separate the wicked from among the just, and shall
cast them into the furnace of fire" (verses 49, 50).
"Then shall the just shine as the sun in the King
dom of their Father. He that hath ears to hear let
him hear" (verse 43).

Colloquy. Inter oves locum praesta,
Et ab hoedis me sequestra,
Statuens in parte dextra.
(Among the sheep grant me a place,
separate me from the goats, placing me
on Thy right Hand).

Resolution. To remember "the doctrine... of eternal
judgment" (Heb. vi, 2) to-day.

Spiritual Bouquet. "He shall come again to judge
the living and the dead".

TRADERS AND TALENTS.

"A man going into a far country called his servants and delivered
to them his goods ; and to one he gave five talents, and to an
other two, and to another one, to every one according to his
proper ability; and immediately he took his journey".

(St. Matt. xxv. 14)

ist Prelude. JESUS telling this parable to His
disciples.

2nd Prelude. Grace to learn the lessons from it
which He intended.

22 ORTUS CHRISTI

POINT I. THE TALENTS.

It is Christ Himself Who is the Author of this
parable and He told it to show us how we are to
prepare for His Coming. Every word of it is of im
portance and bears some instruction or warning
for Advent.

The "man going into a far country'' is the Man-
God, He Who came from Heaven to take our human
nature and to redeem us to God by His Blood.
His work of Redemption is finished and He is going
back to His own country - - "A far country"
implying that He will be gone a long time.

(He) "called His servants" . They are His own
servants, He has created them, He has bought them
with His Blood, they belong to Him — their service,
their time, their very lives are His, and this not
because they are slaves forced to labour, but because
of their own free will and out of love and gratitude
to Him who has bought them from the cruel slavery
of sin, they have said : "I love my Master... I will
not go out free" (Ex. xxi. 5).

"And (He) delivered to them His goods" They are
His goods not the servants', they all belong to Him
and He entrusts them to His servants to take care
of them and to do the best they can with them
while He is gone. What are these "goods"? All the
good things which God has given to man — his
fife, his preservation, his Baptism, his Christian
education, intellect, faith, health, rank, wealth,
talents, conscience, opportunities of doing good, po
sition, — and all have to be traded with, for the
Master to Whom they belong. His "goods" include
too what the world would label "evils" - ill-heath,
difficulty, failure, poverty, incapability ; these have
to be traded with too, and there is often a higher
profit to be made out of these than out of the
others. They are all the Master's goods and He
delivers them to His servants.

TRADERS AND TALENTS 23

"To one He gave five talents and to another two
and to another one, to every one according to his proper
ability" . He knows His servants, and He knows
exactly the strength and capability of each. He mea
sures each burden before imposing it and calculates
each sum before giving it. This servant can manage
five, this one two, this can only manage one. It is no
disgrace to have only one talent, the ability of the
servants is the Master's affair, not the servants'.
They cannot turn to Him and say : "Why hast Thou
made me thus ?" (Rom. ix. 20). He makes each
one according to His own Will and endows him
according to His Will too. What the servant has to
remember is that he is responsible for all that is
entrusted to him, that he can trade with it and
that it is not too much for him, it is "according
to his proper ability", and that though his Master
will never try to reap where He has not sown, He
will expect to reap where He has sown, He will
expect a harvest from each talent.

POINT II. THE TRADERS.

"He that had received the five talents went his way
and traded with the same and gained other five" . He
lost no time, he loved his Master and he loved the
"goods" because they belonged to his Master and
because they had been lent by Him. The whole of
their value lay in the fact that they were the
Master's ; he felt responsible, he must not only take
care of them but put them to the best account,
and so he set to work at once to trade with them,
and he did well, for he gained cent per cent!

"And in like manner he that had received the two
gained other two" . There was no jealousy, no thinking
the Master partial or that He had underrated his
powers in only giving him two talents. He loved
and trusted his Master ; the two talents were very
precious because they were His and because He

24 ORTUS CHRISTI

had chosen them out with such love and care, giving
the servant just what he could manage, no more
and no less. He went and traded and did as well
as the first, cent per cent.

Thus the good servants, that is those who love,
who have said, I will not go out free, are always
trading for their Master. They say to themselves :
This talent, this time, this opportunity, this health,
this strength belongs to my Master not to me, I
must use it for Him. They forget sometimes; the
Master is so long away and they act as if the
goods were their own, and even trade with them
for their own profit, using their talents to attract
people to themselves rather than to their Master!
But as they really love Him and want to "trade" for
Him only, they see the dishonesty of their trading
and they do their best by acts of reparation to
restore to Him His own. When He comes back, He
will not expect perfection but effort. Some, He says,
will gain "a hundred fold" but for our consolation
and encouragement He adds : "some sixtyfold, and
some thirtyfold" (St. Matt, xni, 8).

"But he that had received the one, going his way
digged into the earth, and hid his lord's money" . He
lost no time either, his mind was made up at once,
he would take no trouble, make no effort, would
hide his Master's talent and forget all about it ; he
wanted no responsibility, he could not be troubled
with "trading". His Master could not expect much
from him, he argued, because he had entrusted so
little to him, he knew he was not capable of doing
much, but he would do nothing at all. He did not
waste or spoil his Master's goods, his sin was one
of omission — you did it not to Me. He dug in the
earth instead of laying up treasure in Heaven.

TRADERS AND TALENTS 25

POINT III. THE RECKONING.

"After a long time the Lord of those servants came
and reckoned with them". Each servant must come
up before Him to give an account and to be judged
according to his works.

"Lord, Thou didst deliver to me five talents, behold
I have gained other five over and above" .

"Lord, Thou deliver edst two talents to me, behold
I have gained other two". The Lord gives exactly
the same answer, the same reward to each, showing
clearly that what counts in the reckoning is not
the number of good works but the spirit and inten
tion and motive with which they are done, be they
many or few.

"Well done, good and faithful servant, because thou
hast been faithful over a few things, I will place thee
over many things". The reward is not given to the
most capable, nor to those who have the most or
the greatest talents, but to those who have been
faithful over the few things entrusted to them. They
have traded with their talents for God's glory and
for the salvation of their own souls. They have
realized that each thing entrusted to them was a
"good", whether it was sickness or health, poverty
or riches, prosperity or adversity, and they have
said about each : This belongs to the Master, how
can I best use it for Him ? Now they find that the
merit of each action done, each suffering borne for
Him, has been carefully stored up.

"Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord" . It is His
joy, His interest, His glory that the faithful servant
has studied on earth, now he shall share them
for ever.

"He that had received the one talent came and said:
Lord, I know that Thou art a hard man" expecting
the impossible, "and being afraid I went and hid
Thy talent in the earth; behold here Thou hast that

26 ORTUS CHRISTI

which is Thine". He could have traded and made
cent per cent as the others had done and earned
the "Euge" ("Well done" !) He not only did not do
this, but he put all the blame on his Master Who
with such care had given him just the talent that
was suited to his ability. He was afraid, he said,
afraid of what ? Of his Master because He was hard
and unjust ? No, this was only an excuse, he knew
his Master and he knew it was not true. What he
was afraid of was hard work, effort, ceaseless
watching against temptation. It was far less irksome
to bury the talent and live a life of ease, letting
things just take their course, and hoping all would
come out right in the end; but at the end things
were not right, for he had nothing to give to his
Master, the one talent was the Master's, he knew
that quite well: "Behold here Thou hast that which
is Thine".

"Wicked and slothful servant" — wicked, because
he had robbed God of His rights ; slothful, because
he would not raise a finger to serve his Master.

"Take ye away therefore the talent from him and
give it him that hath ten". It is a solemn thought
that a grace refused by one may be handed on to
another who is more faithful.

"To everyone that hath shall be given" is a prin
ciple of the Kingdom. He ever giveth "grace for
grace" (St. John i, 16). For every grace used He
gives "more grace" — "he shall abound".

"From him that hath not, that also which he seemeth
to have shall be taken away". There is such a thing as
a last grace, a last opportunity. God has nowhere
pledged Himself to give the grace of repentance; grace
is ever a free gift and He is not unjust if He with
holds it. I can never say : I will sin and repent
after! To sin is in my power, but to repent is not.
Our Lord speaks of sinners filling up the measure
of their iniquity (St. Matt, xxm, 32). Had Herod

TRADERS AND TALENTS 27

reached the limit, filled up the measure? Is that
why Our Lord refused to speak to him ? We do
not know, but we do know that it is possible for
a sinner to sin to such an extent — not necessarily
by gross sin, but by steadily refusing God's grace
and the opportunities offered to him — that what
he has, that is, his opportunities, will be taken
from him.

"The unprofitable servant cast ye out into the exterior
darkness" . He ever shunned the light and now it
will never be his. He was unprofitable, that was his
sin, he did nothing for his Master. All sins, however
terrible, will be forgiven if the sinner turns to God
and repents, because his repentance shows that he
is "trading", though he may often fail in his business;
but the unprofitable servant carries on no trade
with God at all, he leaves Him out altogether.
There is nothing for God to do but to leave him
out in the "exterior darkness" which he has delib
erately chosen.

Colloquy with the Master, Who though He is a
"long time" coming, is never far from those who
are trading for Him.

Resolution. Never to leave the Master out of
anything I do.

Spiritual Bouquet. "Well done good and faithful
servant!"

STIR UP!

'I think it meet .... to stir you up by putting you in remembrance".

(2 Pet. i. 13).

ist. Prelude. Paul writing to Timothy : "Stir up
the grace of God which is in thee" (2 Tim. i 6).
2nd. Prelude. Grace to stir myself up this Advent.

28 ORTUS CHRISTI

On the Sunday before Advent and nine times
during the Advent Masses, the Church puts on the
lips of her children this prayer : Stir up, 0 Lord.
Let us try in this Meditation to catch her spirit
which runs all through the Advent season and see
what it is that she wants God to stir up.

POINT I. His OWN MIGHT.

We ask Him during Advent to stir up His might
for four different reasons.

(i) To protect and deliver us. "Stir up Thy might,
we beseech Thee O Lord and come : that by Thy
protection we may deserve to be delivered from
the threatening dangers of our sins and by Thy
deliverance be saved". (The "Collect" for Advent
Sunday.)

We ask Him to show His might by protecting us
from dangers and by delivering us from sin. We
want to spend a good Advent, we want to prepare
well for His Coming, then there rise up before us
the "threatening dangers of our sins" — those old
temptations that are sure to come back again as
soon as we begin to put forth fresh effort. Are we
to be discouraged, to dread them, to say we are
sure to fall again, and thus give the enemy a hold
over us-? No, but to believe that our God Who is
coming will protect us in the day of battle, that
though to humiliate and to strengthen us, He may
still permit the temptations, yet He will Himself
be our shield and buckler, and will deliver us if
we trust in His strength and not in our own —
"Stir up Thy might, O Lord, and come to protect
and deliver."

(2) To free us from adversity. "Stir up Thy power,
we beseech Thee O Lord and come, that they
who confide in Thy mercy may be more speedily
freed from all adversity" (The "Collect" for Friday
in Ember week).

STIR UP! 29

The adversity from which the Church prays to
be freed here is probably the same as she contin
ually teaches us to pray for deliverance from in
her Litanies : war, pestilence, famine, floods, earth
quakes - - all things which damage the peace of
nations and the produce of the earth, great national
disasters. From all such the world will never be
free till the Advent of her Lord, till God stirs up
His power and comes to save it. Meanwhile for our
consolation we can remember that it is when God's
judgments are in the earth that the nations learn
justice (Isaias xxvi, 9). Adversity is a great teacher
and trainer for Heaven, and as we advance in the
spiritual life we see more and more that many
things which are adversity to the body are pros
perity to the soul. We should naturally like to be
freed from the adversity of sickness, poverty, failure
loss of friends, of health and strength, but all these ad
versities have their work to do. "These are they
who came out of great tribulation", and it is prob
able that but for the tribulation many would never
"have washed their robes and have made them
white in the blood of the Lamb" (Apoc. vn, 14.)
Let us strive to be amongst those who trust Him,
who confide in His mercy, who believe that He
knows what is best for them, and who gladly let
Him arrange all for them. He will stir up His power
and speedily free them one day, but it will not be
till the flail of adversity has done its work and the
corn is ready to be garnered in the heavenly barns.

(3) To save us. "Stir up Thy might O Lord and
come to save us."

In the Masses for the third week, that is Ember
week, the prayer occurs five times, twice in the Mass
for the third Sunday and three times in that for
Ember Saturday. The time of the birth of the Sav
iour is drawing nearer, and the Church is beginning
to be importunate. Stir up Thy might; for though

30 ORTUS CHRISTI

He is coming as a little helpless infant, He is God
'mighty to save."

(4) To accelerate His Coming. "Stir up Thy might,
we beseech Thee O Lord and come ; arid succour
us with great power, that by the help of Thy grace,
the indulgence of Thy mercy may accelerate what
our sins impede." (The "Collect" for the 4th. Sunday
of Advent).

We ask Him to stir up His might in coming. His
Advents show His Omnipotence. Only a God could
come to this world to save it, only a God could
come to a soul and raise it to the supernatural
state. These are miracles and we ask Him to
stir up His might to come and work them. It is
our sins that hold Him back and hinder His work
both in our own souls and in the world. We want
them to do so no more and so we ask for His suc
cour and indulgence.

POINT II. OUR WILLS.

"Stir up the wills of Thy faithful, O Lord, we
beseech Thee ; that earnestly seeking after the fruit
of good works, they may receive more abundant
helps from Thy mercy." (The "Collect" for the Sun
day before Advent).

Here we pray for something which it is far more
difficult to "stir up" our own wills. We are

not sufficiently in earnest ; the might and the
mercy of God are there waiting to help us, but we
have not the energy nor the desiie to receive them.
We weaken our wills by yielding to temptation, by
deliberately going into occasions of sin, by allowing
ourselves to be careless about rules and resolutions,
by letting things drift and contenting ourselves with
a low standard. Advent is a time to rectify all this,
to pull ourselves up and make a fresh start, and
if we are in earnest, we shall gladly join in the
prayer: "Stir up the wills of Thy faithful, O Lord"

STIR UP ! 31

stir up my will. It is not a prayer to be said lightly
for it means much - a will stirred up to "seek
after the fruit of good works" means constant and
continued effort ; it means mortification, suffering,
death to self ; it means a determination to do or
suffer anything rather than run the least risk of
of committing the least sin ; it means constant
unremitting attention to little things - - to the
smallest duties, the least prickings of conscience ;
it means hard work. Dare I say this prayer ? If I
am really anxious for "the fruit of good works", I
shall dare anything. Fruit is impossible without hard
work either in the natural or the spiritual world.
"Who is sufficient for these things?" Certainly
I am not, but the consolation is that the work is
co-operative. As soon as I pray : Stir up my will, O
God, because I want to bring forth fruit to Thy
glory; He will be there giving me "more abundant
helps" from His mercy. God does not expect me to
work alone, nor to suffer alone, nor to make efforts
alone. What He wants is a good will. He is coming
"to men of good will", and nothing can prove that
I am one of them, better than a fervent prayer
that my will may be stirred up, cost what it may.
The "abundant helps" will immediately be at my
service ; and when it seems sometimes as if, in spite
of all my efforts, the day is going to be lost, I will
hold on still, remembering that the help is "more
abundant" when the need is greater. The stores of
His mercy are infinite and He ever gives more to
the generous soul.

POINT III. OUR HEARTS.

"Stir up our hearts, O Lord, to prepare the ways
of Thy only-begotten Son : that by His Coming we
may be worthy to serve Thee with purified minds".
(The "Collect" for the 2n<*. Sunday of Advent).

Here lies the secret; if our hearts are stirred up

32 ORTUS CHRISTI

there will be little difficulty about our wills. If I
love, I shall gladly make efforts, no trouble will be
too much, no work too exacting, no sacrifice too
great, no mortification too hard. "// you love Me,
keep My commandments" . My will is to be stirred up
to seek, but my heart is to be stirred up to prepare.
It is my King Who is coming, He Who has a right
to my heart, and He is quite sure to pass by my
way, for to win my heart and make it all His own
is one of the special reasons of His Coming. No
pains, no cost shall be spared in my preparation ;
my heart shall be decorated with the flowers that
I know He loves and hung with banners which shall
speak of my gratitude for all He has done. This is
the preparation of the heart - - the preparation of
love ; and it will not stop at my own heart, for if
I really love my King I shall take an interest in
all the work that He is coming to do ; I shall try
to prepare His way for Him in the hearts of others ;
I shall let them know that JESUS of Nazareth is
going to pass by. Perhaps I shall have no opportu
nity of speaking about His visit, but the careful
preparations I am making will not go unnoticed -
each thing that I do out of love to Him will in
some way or another spread His Kingdom in the
hearts of men.

Colloquy. With my King Who is coming.

Resolution. To do something to-day in preparation.

Spiritual Bouquet. "Stir up !"

ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST, (i)
His PREPARATION.

"This is he of whom it is written : Behold I send my Angel before
Thy face, who shall prepare Thy way before Thee."

(St. Matt. xi. 10).

ist Prelude. Picture of the Naming Day of St. John
the Baptist who is on Our Lady's knee, while Eliza
beth and the kinsfolk are discussing the name and
Zachary is writing on a tablet ; St. Joseph is looking on.

2nd Prelude. The spirit of penance.

Often during Advent the Church directs our
thoughts to the great Precursor of JESUS Christ,
to him who was sent to prepare His ways. On four
occasions she chooses for the "Gospel" in the Mass,
passages which relate to St. John the Baptist and
his work of preparation. If we would prepare well
for the coming of our King, we cannot do better
than meditate on St. John the Baptist and try in
our small measure to prepare as he did.

POINT I. THE PREPARATION BEFORE HIS BIRTH.

(1) A prophecy. Four hundred years before the
Precursor's birth, Malachias prophesied of him :
"Behold I send My angel", that is My messenger ;
and Our Lord tells us expressly (His words are
noted by three of the Evangelists, St. Matthew, St.
Mark and St. Luke) that this messenger was John
the Baptist, who was sent by God to prepare the
ways of the Messias.

(2) His miraculous conception - - for his parents
were both "well advanced in years". Both his father

34 ORTUS CHRISTI

and mother were "just before God walking in all the
commandments and justifications of the Lord without
blame" ; and they had their cross to bear — the
"reproach" of having no son and therefore no hope
of the Messias being born to them; but this did
not prevent them from praying, as ah1 fervent
Israelites prayed, for the coming of the Messias.
The answer to their prayer was nearer than they
thought. One day as Zachary was performing the
most solemn part of his priestly office - - offering
incense on the golden altar that stood "over against
the veil" which separated the Holy Place from the
Holy of Holies — he saw an angel standing on the
right side of the altar, who, after he had calmed
his fear, told him that his prayer was heard, that
the Messias was coming, and that his wife Elizabeth
was to bear him a son who was to be His Precursor
"he shall go before Him". The angel then prophe
sied many things about this child, which all show
how careful was God's preparation of His Precursor :

"Thou shall call his name John" (the Grace of
God). Only those who had an important future
before them were named by God Himself before
their birth.

"Many shall rejoice in his nativity". Many — both
angels and men.

"He shall be great before the Lord". Great in
sanctity and great in office.

He "shall drink no wine nor strong drink". He
shall be a Nazarite, one separated and consecrated
to God by a vow.

"He shall be filled with the Holy Ghost even
from his mother's womb" — that is, he shall be
cleansed from the stain of original, sin and put into
the state of grace before his birth as was Jeremias
(Jer. I 5).

"He shall convert many" by preaching penance
and telling of Him who takes away sin.

ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST (i) 35

"He shall go before Him... to prepare unto the
Lord a perfect people". Zachary listened but he
could not believe that what he heard was true,
though Gabriel, who stands before God, had been
sent expressly to him with the message of good
tidings. He asked for a sign and He received one
which not only proved to him that God can do what
He wills as He wills, but also that He expects His
children to trust Him.

When at length Zachary appeared from behind
the curtain to the waiting and wondering people,
instead of giving them the accustomed blessing
(Num. vi 24, 26), he made signs to them and
remained dumb and they understood that he had
seen a vision. God dealt severely with Zachary
because he was so closely bound up with the Advent
of the Messias. He had to be taught, and we through
him, that the least venial sin may hinder God's
work and designs, and that if we would be His
instruments used by Him for the preparation of the
Coming of His Son, we must be absolutely faithful
about little things, full of confidence in God, setting
no limit to His power and never doubting His
dealings with us.

(3) He was filled with the Holy Ghost. Six months
later, Elizabeth who had been waiting in solitude
and silence for God to fulfil His designs, received
a visit from the Mother of God, and the Precursor
and the Messias Who was to come were brought
into close contact. We cannot doubt that it was at
that moment when, as Elizabeth said "the infant
in my womb leaped for joy", that John was "filled
with the Holy Ghost". Thus God cleansed His
Precursor before his birth from the stain of original
sin, again showing us that those who are to pre
pare for the Coming of His Son must be distin
guished by their purity.

(4) By the holiness of his mother and his home.

36 ORTUS CHRISTI

His mother taught by the Holy Spirit was the first
to recognize Our Lady as the Mother of God; she
was saluted by Our Lady and ministered to by her.
She had the unspeakable privilege of having Our
Lady with the blessed Fruit of her womb JESUS
living under her roof for three months. A home
where the Mother of God was welcomed and honoured
- such was the home God chose for the Precursor
of His Son.

POINT II. THE PREPARATION AFTER HIS BIRTH.

"There was a man sent from God, whose name
was John. This man came to bear witness of the
Light, to prepare unto the Lord a perfect people".
(The "Gradual" for the Vigil of St. John the Baptist).
The Feast of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist
is a Double of the First Class with an Octave, for
Mary and her Son were present at his birth and
he was "great before the Lord".

The eighth day was the day of circumcision and
the naming day. Everybody naturally was calling
him Zachary, but his mother who knew from her
husband that the name was fixed, said: "Not so,
but he shall be called John". They would not have
it and appealed by signs to the deaf and dumb
father, who wrote : "John is his name", for "he
was so named of the angel before he was conceived."
At that moment Zachary 's penance came to an end
and "he spoke blessing God". This fresh miracle
was soon "noised abroad" and the people asked in
fear: "What an one, think ye, shall this child be?"
Zachary, "filled with the Holy Ghost", used his
loosed tongue to sing his beautiful hymn of praise
to God who had remembered His holy testament,
and had allowed "the Orient from on high" to visit
them. And then addressing his little son, he said:
"And thou child shalt be called the prophet of the

ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST (i) 37

Highest, for thou shall go before the face of the
Lord to prepare His ways".

He began to "prepare His ways" by a life of
hardship, solitude and penance, having no fixed
home, living on what he could find in the deserts
— locusts and wild honey, and wearing as a
garment camels' hair with a leathern girdle. Tradition
tells us he began all this at a very early age and
he continued it "until the day of his manifestation
to Israel", that is, until the day he left his solitude
and began to preach - - nearly thirty years later.
He had thirty years' preparation for his life's work,
like Him whose way he was preparing, and he was
preparing it no less as a solitary in the desert? than
as the great preacher of penance by the Jordan.

What lessons can we learn for our own prepara
tion for the Coming of Christ this Advent ?

1. That because we are going to be amongst those
who in some way or other "prepare His ways", God
has occupied Himself with our preparation even
before we were born. Either by surrounding us with
good, or by bringing good out of evil or by some
of His many ways which are not our ways, He has
had a hand in all that concerns us. We have first
firmly to believe this, and secondly to co-operate
with all God's designs for us, as John did.

2. That if we would prepare the ways of Christ
we must be familiar with His Mother, accustomed
to receiving her salutations and to returning them.
That we must have her to live with us and take an
interest in all that concerns us. Who could better
help us to prepare for the Coming of her Son than
His own Mother ?

3. That we must be filled with the Holy Spirit
and never turn Him out of our hearts by sin. It
would be useless to try to prepare the way for
Christ if we had not the co-operation of the Holy
Spirit.

38 ORTUS CHRISTI

4. That penance in one form or another must
have a share in our preparation for the Coming of
Christ. All we know of John from the time of his
infancy till he began his mission is that "he was
in the deserts". It was not that he preferred such
a life, but he felt that it was the one most suited
to his own preparation for the Messias, for during
those long years in the deserts he was preparing
the way of Christ in his own heart; during his
mission he prepared it in the hearts of others.
Solitude, fasting, lack of ease and comfort, coarse
clothing — these were the allies which John chose
to aid him in his preparation for the Coming of the
King, for His "Kingdom is not of this world" and
"the weapons of our warfare are not carnal"
(2 Cor. x 4). He was consecrated to God, and he
separated himself from everything that might inter
fere with his entire consecration.

Colloquy, (i) With God the Father Who has chosen
me to prepare the ways of His Son.

(2) With Him Who is coming.

(3) With God the Holy Ghost Who is
co-operating with me.

(4) With Our Lady who is ready to let
me do all my work by her side.
(Ecclus xxiv 30).

(5) With St. John the Baptist who will
obtain for me, if I ask him, the spirit
of penance.

Resolution. To examine myself to-day as to the
place penance is having in my Advent, and if it
has none, to fix at least one daily penitential act.

Spiritual Bouquet. "He was in the deserts".

ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST. (2)
His MISSION.

"In those days cometh John the Baptist preaching in the desert
of Judea,.. preaching the baptism of penance unto remission
of sins". (St. Matt, m, i. and St. Mark i. 4).

ist Prelude. John preaching and baptizing by the
Jordan.

2nd. Prelude. Gratitude to the "Friend of the Bride
groom" for pointing Him out to the Bride.

POINT I. THE PROPHET.

When John was about thirty years of age the
"word of the Lord". (St. Luke m, 2.) reached him
in his solitude, just as it had done all the prophets
of old from Samuel down to Malachias, but since then,
that is for a period of four hundred years, God had
spoken through no prophet. As a result of this "word"
the "Prophet of the Highest" came into all the coun
try about the Jordan — a large area — and began his
mission. His arrival made a great stir and the people
flocked to see and hear him. There "went out to him
Jerusalem and all Judea and all the country about
Jordan". All classes went — publicans, soldiers, even
the Pharisees and Sadducees, for if this man were
really a prophet sent from God, it behoved them to
know all about him. What did the multitudes see ?
A man wearing a "garment of carmels' hair and a
leathern girdle about his loins," whose food consisted
of locusts and wild honey — a man as the Angel Gabriel
had prophesied "in the spirit and power of Elias"
(see iv Kings i, 8) What did they hear? A voice of

40 ORTUS CHRISTI

one crying in the desert: "Prepare ye the way of the
Lord , make straight His paths." (St. Matt. in. 3)
And what were their conclusions? That this was he
who was spoken of by Isaias the prophet (verse 3),
that he was "sent from God" (St. John i. 6) and
that he "came for a witness, to give testimony of
the light" (St. John i. 7 ). What light? The "Light of
the world". John came to proclaim that the dawn
which the world had been so long watching was on the
point of giving place to day, that the "Sun of just
ice" was even now rising with "health in His wings" for
those that feared God's name, and that they must go
forth to meet him (Mai. iv, 2).

I too must go forth. What am I going to do to-day
which will prove to myself, to my Guardian Angel,
to my Patron Saint, to Mary my Mother and to Him
Who is coming that I am preparing the way of the
Lord?

POINT II His PREACHING.

John came "preaching the baptism of penance for
the remission of sins" (St. Luke in. 3). His voice was
like that of a herald proclaiming a great event that
was close at hand. "Do penance, for the kingdom of
heaven is at hand" (St. Matt. in. 2). The Messias is
coming to set up His Kingdom. He Whom you have
so long expected is close to you, prepare for Him.
Then John told them shortly and explicitly how to
prepare : (i) "To believe in Him Who was to come"
(Acts xix 4). (2) To repent of their sins and bring
forth fruits worthy of penance such as fasting and
self-denial (St. Mark. n. 18). (3) To confess their sins
(St. Mark i. 5). (4) To be baptized as a sign of hope
that their sins had been forgiven. John's baptism could
not wash away sin, for it was no sacrament, St. Paul,
as well as St. Mark and St. Luke, called it the "Bap
tism of penance" (Acts. xix. 4). It was a baptism
which proclaimed to all that he who submitted to it

ST, JOHN THE BAPTIST (2) 41

acknowledged himself to be a sinner and a penitent.

John the Baptist was greatly in earnest, for the
time was short ; he spoke very plainly to those whom
he noticed coming to be baptized out of curiosity or
human respect without any repentance or intention
of doing penance. He warned them of the wrath of
God which would fall upon sinners who persisted in
their sin, of the folly of thinking that all was well
with them because they had Abraham for their
father; he told them that every tree which did not
yield good fruit would be cut down and cast into the
fire, that He Who was coming and was even now so
nigh would divide all people into two classes -- the
wheat and the chaff, and that the great winnowing
fan was already in His Hand.

The people then began to feel uncomfortable and
alarmed, and anxious to make sure that they were not
going to be blown away as chaff, or burnt "with un
quenchable fires" by the Mighty One Who was com
ing ; and different classes began to ask John what
they must do. His answers were singularly appro
priate and confirmed the opinion that he was indeed
a prophet. To the people generally he counselled char
ity, kindness and brotherly love as the best possible
preparation ; to the public tax-collectors, who grew
rich on the sums that they demanded in excess of
the fixed tax, that they should do nothing more than
that which was appointed ; to the soldiers, that they
should avoid violence and calumny and be content
with their pay (St. Luke in. 10-14). He showed clearly
by his straight and simple answers that the best way
for us to prepare for Him Who is coming, is to look
into our daily life and occupations and change any
thing and everything that we know He would find
faulty.

42 ORTUS CHRISTI

POINT III. His BAPTISM.

One after another the people made up their minds
to change their evil lives and bad habits. They made
their good resolutions and as a proof of their sorrow
for the past and firm purpose of amendment for
the future, they went into the Jordan confessing
their sins, and John baptized them. He told them then
that He Who was coming was mightier than himself,
and that He would baptize them with the Holy Ghost
and fire. "Then cometh JESUS from Galilee to the
Jordan unto John to be baptized by him !" Where
had he come from ? Straight from His home, from
Nazareth, from His Mother. He had come to fulfil
John's prophecy, to begin His public ministry to the
people, and He would begin it by identifying Him
self with them. They were sinners, coming to confess
their sins and He would be numbered with the trans
gressors (Isaias in. 12). "But John stayed Him,
saying : "I ought to be baptized by Thee, and comes t
Thou to me ?" (St. Matt. in. 14). Though they were
cousins it is probable that they had not met since
their early childhood. One had lived in the seclusion
of Nazareth and the other in the seclusion of the
desert. "I knew Him not," (St. John, i 31, 33) John
said. It was probably the fact of someone coming for
the baptism of penance who had no sins to confess
that made John suspect and then protest ; but he
could not resist the gentle, authoritative words :
"Suffer it to be so now, for so it becometh Us to fulfil
all justice." Then when He had gone out of the water
John saw a wonderful sight — he described it himself :
"I saw the Spirit coming down as a dove from Heaven
and He remained upon Him ; and I knew Him not,
but He Who sent me to baptize with water said to me :
He upon Whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending
and remaining upon Him, He it is That baptizeth
with the Holy Ghost. And I saw ; and I gave testi-

ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST (2) 43

mony, that this is the Son of God." (St. John i. 32-34).
He knew Him now — there was no longer any doubt,
no more time of waiting and preparation, He Who
should come had come. God Himself pointed Him
out to the faithful Precursor — a voice from Heaven
said : "This is My beloved Son in Whom I am well
pleased" (St. Matt. in. 17). What a reward for John
after his life of solitude and penance and mortifica
tion — to be in close contact with the Son of God, to
see the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove, and to hear
the Voice of God the Father, and thus have the seal
set to his mission ! "And I saw; and I gave testimony."
And what have the waters of Jordan to say?
That He, over Whose Sacred Head they closed, has,
by the contact of His precious Body, sanctified them
and all other waters and given them power, when
they are in contact with His mystical Body to wash
away sin. JESUS went down to John in the Jordan
not to receive a gift, but to impart one. From hence
forth the waters will bring forth abundantly and
God will say of His new creation, as He did in the
beginning, that it is good. All three Persons of the
Blessed Trinity were present at this new creation,
the Holy Spirit brooded over the face of the waters
for this new baptism was the Baptism of the Holy
Ghost, the Voice of the Lord was upon the waters
(Ps. xxvin. 3), the Voice, that is, of the Father pro
claiming that He was well pleased, not only with
His "Beloved Son" but with this first act of His
public ministry ; for in Him He saw a countless mul
titude coming out of the sanctified water, and of
each one He will say : ' ' This is My beloved son, in whom
I am well pleased."

O Almighty Eternal God, preside over the myst
eries of Thy great mercy, preside over Thy sacraments
and send forth the Spirit of adoption to regenerate
the new people, whom the font of Baptism brings
forth to Thee" (Prayer for the Blessing of the Font
on Holy Saturday).

44 ORTUS CHRISTI

Colloquy. "Grant we beseech Thee, Almighty God,
that Thy servants may walk in the way of salation ;
and by following the exhortation of Blessed John the
Precursor may securely attain the possession of Him
Whom He foretold, Our Lord Jesus Christ." (Collect
for the Vigil of St. John the Baptist).

Resolution To "prepare His ways" to-day.

Spiritual Bouquet ,, Blessed John the Baptist . . pray
to the Lord our God for us."

ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST (3)
His TESTIMONY.

"This man came for a witness to give witness of the Light, that
all men might believe through Him'" (St. John i. 7)

ist. Prelude. " John stood and two of his disciples
and beholding JESUS walking, he saith : Behold the
Lamb of God." (verses 35,36).

2nd. Prelude. Grace so to hear his testimony that
we follow JESUS.

POINT I. "THAT HE MAY BE MADE MANIFEST THERE
FORE AM i COME" (verse 31)

This was all John wanted, all he cared about, it
was his vocation, it was the point of his long years
of mortification, the reason for his preaching and bap
tism ; he was a man of one idea — the Christ is coming,
I must manifest Him to the people. This man came
for a witness to give testimony of the Light, (verse 7)
When the people wondering asked him : Art thou the
Christ ? Art thou Elias ? Art thou the prophet ? his

ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST (3) 45

answer was : No, I am only a voice proclaiming His
coming. I, He ? Oh, no, I am not worthy to be His
slave. He is the Light, the Light of the whole world.
"I saw the Spirit coming down as a dove from Heaven
and He remained upon Him" . .And I saw; and I gave
testimony that this is the Son of God (verses 32-34).
Let me look at my preparation for His coming
this Advent and see whether I am in any way follow
ing in the footsteps of the great Precursor. Can I
be said to be a person of one idea — that of manifest
ing my Lord to others ? When people want to make
much of me and my work and ask who I am, is my one
thought to turn their eyes from me to Him Who is
coming ? Am I really persuaded that I am only here
to make Him manifest ? 7s He being made manifest
to others through me ? Do those with whom I come
in contact leave me, with a greater knowledge of Him,
with a greater desire for His coming, with more anxi
ety about the salvation of their souls and with more
zeal for that of others ? Do my words and deeds, does
my very manner, speak to them of Him and make
them think of Him ? "Artthouthe Christ?" In one
sense, yes, for I am or ought to be another Christ
(alter Christus), living His life, doing His work and
representing Him in the world.

POINT II "BEHOLD THE LAMD OF GOD."

This is He, behold Him ! He is the Lamb of God. He
it is to whom all the lambs that have been sacri
ficed point ; their blood could not wash away sin,
but "behold Him who taketh away the sin of the
world." You are sorry for your sins, you have con
fessed them and I have baptized you as a sign that
they are forgiven, now there is One among you who
takes them away. Behold the Lamb of God !
This was what John said when he saw JESUS the day
after His baptism ; he said the same thing the next

46 ORTUS CHRISTI

day when he saw Him walking by the Jordan ; two of
his disciples were with him, Andrew and John
(probably), and when they saw their master pointing
to JESUS and saying: ''Behold the Lamb of God !"
they did what John meant them to do, they left
their master and followed Him. How well had the
faithful Precursor prepared the way in their hearts !
How thoroughly he had done his work ! How abso
lutely he had effaced himself ! There was no doubt,
no hesitation in the minds of his disciples, no wondering
whether John would mind; "they followed JESUS" , and
John had the joy of seeing JESUS turn and speak to
them: "What seek you?" And then the joy of hear
ing them call Him Master. "Master, where dwellest
Thou ?" "Come and see.' Then the Friend of the
Bridegroom saw the three going away together, and
he knew that his mission had not been in vain, the
Bride was beginning to join the Bridegroom.

POINT III. "HE THAT HATH THE BRIDE is THE
BRIDEGROOM."

It was not for nothing that Andrew and John spent
that day with JESUS. They told others what they had
found: "We have found the Messias, which is being inter
preted the Christ", and they brought their compan
ions one by one to JESUS, with the result that very
soon the Baptism of the Holy Ghost was taking
place in the Jordan as well as the Baptism of Penance,
and the people instructed by John left the less for
the greater.

There were "busybpdies", as St. Paul calls them
(i Tim. v. 13), even in those days, people who could
not let others alone, who could not understand the
situation or pretended that they could not ; they
''came to John and said to him : Rabbi, He that was
with thee beyond the Jordan, to Whom thou gavest
testimony, behold He baptizeth and all men come

ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST (3) 47

to Him (St. John in. 26). They were words calcula
ted to stir up jealousy and ill-feeling ; but John was
too humble and too great to be disturbed by them,
his answer was characteristic : "You yourselves do
bear me witness, that I said that I am not Christ, but
that I am sent before Him. He that hath the Bride
is the Bridegroom." There is the proof that all I
have been telling you is true. He has the Bride, the
people all go to Him, you see for yourselves that He
must be the Bridegroom ; "but the Friend of the
Bridegroom, who standeth and heareth Him, rejoi-
ceth with joy because of the Bridegroom's voice.
This my joy therefore is fulfilled." It was enough for
"the Friend of the Bridegroom" to hear His Master's
voice. The necessity for him and his preaching was
fast passing away and he knew it. He had been for
a time the gre^it man, the popular preacher, the one
every one talked about, whose advice everyone
sought, now he must stand aside and see his disciples
gather round another master, himself not in the group
at all. It is a position most workers in God's vineyard
find themselves in sooner or later, they have to give
place to others, to watch others reaping the fruit of
their labours, to see those whom they have taught going
to other teachers, those who have sought their advice
seeking it elsewhere. How do they bear this difficult
situation ? How am I going to bear it when my turn
comes ? Am I going to pose as a martyr, craving
for and expecting every one's sympathy? Am I
going to put difficulties in the way of those who suc
ceed me, and make it hard for those to whom it has
been my privilege to minister ? Some are even jealous
and show their displeasure by criticizing those who
succeed them ! What was John's attitude ? All he
wanted was his Master and His Will. He was the "Friend
of the Bridegroom." He was satisfied to stand on one
side, and his cup of joy was full when he heard his
Master's Voice. "He must increase" in the minds of

48 ORTUS CHRISTI

the people "and I must decrease." Let me learn a
lesson from John the Baptist and make my sacri
fice beforehand, remembering that nothing matters
so long as I am the friend of the Bridegroom, can hear
His Voice and see the souls I have tried to help fol
lowing Him. These are joys, real joys, and they are
perhaps never fully realized till the cool shade of the
background is reached.

POINT IV. JOHN'S TESTIMONY OF HIMSELF.

1. I am sent before Him (St. John m. 28)

2. I am the voice (chap. i. 23)

3. I baptize with water (verses 26, 31)

4. I am not worthy (verse 27)

5. I am come that He may be made manifest
(verse ^i).

6. I ought to be baptized by Thee (St. Matt. in. 14)

7. I knew him not. (St. John i. 31)

8. I saw the Spirit coming down.... and He
remained upon Him (verse 32)

9. I saw (verse 34); (that is, I understood).

10. I gave testimony that this is the Son of God.
(ibid)

11. I am not the Christ (verse 20)

12. I must decrease (chap in. 30)

Colloquy with St. John the Baptist.
Resolution. To bear my testimony.
Spiritual Bouquet. "Behold the Lamb of God !"

ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST (4)
His MARTYRDOM.

"Herod the Tetrarch, when he was reproved by him for Herodias,
his brother's wife, and for all the evils which Herod had done,
he added this also above all, and shut up John in prison."

(St. Luke III. 19, 20)

ist. Prelude. John the Baptist in Prison.
2nd. Prelude. Grace to be faithful unto death.

POINT i. JOHN IN PRISON.

John knew no fear where right was concerned. His
duty was to make the paths straight for Him who was
coming and it mattered little to him whether he re-
biiked the Pharisees and Sadducees at the Jordan or
Herod in his palace. Herod, however, could not brook
such plain speaking and he had (at first) a mind to
put him to death (but) "he feared the people, because
they esteemed him as a prophet" (St. Matt. xiv. 5).
Herodias also had "laid snares for him and was de
sirous to put him to death and could not" because of
Herod who knowing that John was "a just and holy
man" (afterwards) protected his life (St. Mark vi.
19, 20). So John was shut up in prison ; Josephus
tells us that it was at a place called Machaerus on
the east of the Dead Sea where Herod had a castle.

Let us go and visit John in that lonely prison, where
he was cast quite at the beginning of Christ's minis
try. His long years of preparation in the desert, his
fearless, outspoken preaching, his generosity and
humility in giving place to his Master, his important
office of Forerunner of the Messias, his vision of the

50 ORTUS CHRISTI

Blessed Trinity - - are they all to end thus ? Is
this how God treats His friends ? Is this the reward
for fidelity and loyalty ? Yes, St. John would be the
first to answer, these are ever God's ways, "He must in
crease, I must decrease." John had indeed been spec
ially favoured and he was specially favoured in
prison too. It is not everybody whom God can trust
with a trial such as this. John was still preparing the
ways of the Lord, no longer by an active life, but by a
life of suffering, solitude and privation. His patience
and his perfect submission to God's Will no doubt
prepared the ways of Christ in the hearts of many.
If He is to increase, I must decrease, it is only na
tural. Yes, it is natural for the saints to reason like
this, but what about me ? I want to be a saint. I
often perhaps ask God to make me one, perhaps I even
tell Him to use any means He likes, not to spare me.
Does not this solve many a problem ? God is only
taking me at my word; the beginning, the middle and
the end of the process of saint-making is humility.
"I must decrease," and if I ask to be a saint, He will
give me the humiliations and the sufferings which
alone can teach me humility and unite me to Himself
What then does it matter, if I have to suffer physi
cally or morally, if a career of usefulness in His ser
vice is suddenly cut short, if I have to stand on one
side and see the work I love and for which my whole
life has been a preparation, being done by another,
if those I have taught do not seem to understand, if
my life is full of little things I dislike and which seem
made to annoy me -- all these and everything else
that can possibly happen to me are the direct result
of my God-given wish to be a saint. Let me ask St.
John the Baptist for courage to continue my prayer
this Advent and to accept joyfully for Him Who is
coming all that it entails, saying, to myself when
something seems to happen on purpose to annoy
me : 'This is to help to make me a saint," and then
seeing to it that it does.

ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST (4) 51

POINT II. THE END.

Vengeance still rankled in the breast of Herodias
for John had said to Herod: "It is not lawful for thee
to have thy brother's wife." She laid her plans and
awaited her opportunity ; it came on Herod's birth
day ; he gave a supper for the princes and tribunes
and chief men of Galilee, and she made her daughter
come in and dance till they were all so pleased that
Herod swore to the girl : "Whatsoever thoushalt ask
I will give thee, though it be the half of my king
dom." Herodias knew Herod and expecting that this
would happen had told her daughter to do nothing
without consulting her. "What shall I ask ?" she
said to her mother, who replied without any hesita
tion : "The head of John the Baptist." Herodias was
evidently afraid that the king would change his
mind and that her wicked plans would after all fail,
for she impressed upon her daughter the necessity
of haste. The girl went back immediately, with haste
to Herod, and said : "I will that forthwith thou give
me in a dish the head of John the Baptist." Herod
was very sorry, for he was interested in his prisoner,
also he knew him to be "a just and holy man" (St.
Mark vi.2o) and he hesitated before such a crime ; but
he had taken an oath and to break it before his guests
would be inconsistent with his dignity, besides "he
would not displease" the girl, so he acted at once as
Herodias had bidden him : "he sent and beheaded
John in the prison, and his head was brought in a
dish, and it was given to the damsel, and she brought
it to her mother."

"Faithful unto death." - "O Lord, Thou hast set on
his head a crown of precious stones" ("Communion"
for the feast of the Beheading of St. John the Baptist,
August 29th.)

"And his disciples came and took the body and-
buried it, and came and told JESUS," told the Bride-

52 ORTUS CHRISTI

groom that His "friend" was dead. "Which when
JESUS had heard, He retired from thence by a boat,
into a desert place apart."

"Faithful unto death", I must be too, if my prepar
ation this Advent is to be anything like that of St.
John the Baptist. He died to self long before his
cruel death in the prison ; his whole life from the day
he went into the desert as a little child was a living
death : "As dying and behold we live" (2 Cor. vi. 9)
This is how St. Paul describes the state of all those
who "will live godly in Christ JESUS" (2 Tim. in. 12).
It is the death of "the old man," the death of self ;
the "I" must ever be decreasing, ever receiving the
blows which will one day, probably not before the
soul's last day on earth, cause its death. Such is the
prospect I have before me, if I would copy John the
Baptist and be faithful unto death. What is my con
solation and strength? That JESUS knows and sym
pathizes. Not one of the blows which cost me so much,
not one of the sufferings, not one hour of desolation
or loneliness or temptation or misunderstanding or
unkindness, or any of the many things which are con
spiring together for the death of "the old man", are lost
upon Him. He knows, He cares, He sympathizes and
He is glad, for in proportion as the "I" is decreasing,
He is increasing in my soul.

Colloquy (i) With John in the prison.

(2) With JESUS in "a desert place apart."

Resolution. To be "faithful unto death" to-day.

Spiritual Bouquet "I spoke of Thy testimonies be
fore kings and I was not ashamed" ("Introit" for the
Feast of the Beheading of St. John the Baptist).

ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST (5)
HIS CHARACTER.

"What went you out into the desert to see ? A reed shaken
with the wind ? But what went you out to see ? A man clothed
in soft garments ? Behold they that are in costly apparel and live
delicately, are in the houses of kings. But what went you out to
see ? A prophet ? Yea, I say to you, and more than a prophet,
for .... among those that are born of women, there is not a
greater prophet than John the Baptist. But he that is the lesser
in the Kingdom of God, is greater than he."

[St. Luke vn. 24-28]

ist. Prelude. JESUS talking to His disciples about
John.

2nd. Prelude. Grace to stand by and listen and learn.

POINT I. His HUMILITY.

One day when John was in prison his disciples
came and told him that they had heard that JESUS
was working a great many miracles and that His
fame was spreading all through the country. At Caphar-
naum He had healed a centurion's servant, and at
Nairn He had raised a widow's son to life ; and the
people were all glorifying God and saying : "A great
prophet is risen up among us, and God hath visited
His people" (St. Luke vn). This news sounded like
music in John's ears ; it was just what he wanted; it
was a proof that his life's work had not been in vain :
"He must increase." The disciples however who
brought the news did not take at all the same vievr
of the case. They were not pleased that another
should take the place of their master while he languish
ed in prison. John knew that had they been quite
sure that JESUS was the Messias, such thoughts could

54 ORUTS CHRISTI

have had no place in their minds, and so to strengthen
their faith he sent two of them to JESUS with the
question: "Art thou He that art to come or look we
for another ?" hoping no doubt that they might see
some miracles for themselves, or at any rate that
personal contact with JESUS would clear away their
doubts.

See the beautiful humility of John's character,
there is no thought for himself ; he is only anxious
still to point out the Lamb of God and to remove all
obstacles from His path in the hearts of all; he is
still the voice crying with no uncertain sound. It
happened (not by chance) that just when the two
disciples arrived many miracles were being worked
by JESUS, and in answer to their question, which they
were probably now rather ashamed to put, He said :
"Go and relate to John what you have heard and seen;"
and He added : "Blessed is he whosoever shall not be
scandalized in Me/' Surely after that the disciples
could never again stumble in their faith, and it must
have been with joy in their hearts that they told
their master of all they had seen and heard.

POINT II. CHRIST'S TESTIMONY OF JOHN.

When the messengers had gone, JESUS began to
talk to the people about His faithful Precursor, whom
they all knew so well. "What went you out in the
desert, to see ?" He asked them. Was it "a reed
shaken with the wind ?" Was it "a man clothed in soft
garments" and living delicately ? Was it "a prophet"?
On another occasion He spoke of him as "a burning
and a shining light" (St. John v. 35). What praise
this was on the lips of the Master ! The four points He
picked out are characteristics that He appreciates not
only in John but in all who are preparing for His
Coming. Let us see where we stand with regard
to them.

ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST (5) 55

1. A determination of purpose. "What went you out
into the desert to see ? A reed shaken with the wind ?"
No, but a man of one idea, and who pursued that idea
through all difficulties and opposition and failure, not
counting the cost. I want to copy John the Baptist.
I want to prepare the way of the Lord in my heart,
how shall I do it ? Not by allowing myself to be a reed
shaken with the wind, trying very hard for a day or
two and then giving all up and saying it is no use ;
not by making good resolutions and then quietly drop
ping them because they have been broken. No, but by a
steady, determined effort, in spite of many failures,
to overcome in myself everything which I know
will be a hindrance to my King pursuing His way in
my soul. He is never disappointed by my failures ;
these are more than made up for directly I tell Him
that I am sorry. What pains His loving Heart is ces
sation of effort, giving up the fight, running away
from the enemy instead of standing up to be knocked
down again, if my Captain thus wills to give me another
opportunity of meriting, and of practising humility.
Saints are not made by victories all along the line,
but by repeated failures humbly and patiently accept
ed, with a firm determination that each failure shall
be the last. But what is the use when I know I shall
fail again ? I do not know ; I need not fall, it is my own
fault if I do. To do less than have a firm determina
tion about the future, would be to lay down my arms.
Every effort made for God leaves me holier, and as
long as I keep on trying I am making progress in
the spiritual life, though I cannot see it.

2, Self-sacrifice. "But what went you out to see ?
A man clothed in soft garments ? Behold they that
are in costly apparel and live delicately are in the
houses of kings." John prepared for the Coming of
his King by a life of self-sacrifice, every day giving
up for the sake of Him Who was coming all the things
that were just as dear to his nature as they are to mine.

56 ORTUS CHRISTI

What part is self-sacrifice taking in my preparation
for my King this Advent ? I have no need to go into
the desert or live the life of a hermit. It is the little tiny
acts of self-sacrifice known only to my King and me
which are so pleasing to Him. It is wonderful what
notice He takes of little things which are done out of
love to Him. If we could promise Him a certain num
ber of these little acts every day — perhaps six or
ten, or even one — and mark them down to ensure
there being remembered, it would be a prepar
ation very precious in His sight. To do a hard thing
just because it is hard, to keep silent when I could
say something sarcastic or clever but not quite cha
ritable, to bear little physical sufferings without
letting everybody know about them, to be cheerful
and bright when I am feeling tired and moody, to accept
all that happens to me as coming straight from God's
Hands, especially all the little crosses that come to me
through others — these are the things that will make
me a saint and I cannot keep Advent or any other
season better than by practising them. Nothing is
too small for my King to notice. Let me then be gener
ous and give Him all I can, remembering that as
long as the little act costs me something, it is sure to
be acceptable to Him ; "He must increase, I must de
crease," and it is by self-sacrifice that this great
work will slowly but surely be accomplished in my soul.
3. Fidelity to duty. "But what went you out to see ?
A prophet ? Yea, I say to you, and more than a prophet
for .... amongst those that are born of women, there
is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist. But
he that is the lesser in the kingdom of God is greater
than he." John was more than a prophet, because he
not only prophesied of Christ as so many other pro
phets had done, but he was the last of the prophets,
the immediate Forerunner of the Messias. No office
could be greater than this and no one else ever held
it, it was unique and made John "more than a prophet."

ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST (5) 57

Neverthelesss, Our Lord said : "He that is the lesser
in the kingdom of God is greater than he"- - lesser in
holiness and in office, but greater in dignity and pri
vilege, because he is a member of the Holy Catholic
Church and a partaker of her Sacraments. Thanks
giving that I am a menber of the Holy Catholic Church
should often find a place in my heart, and especially
during Advent when the Church begins again to
spread out before me all the treasures of her Liturgy
and when my thoughts and meditations are centred
round Him Who is coming to be incarnate for that
Church, to die for it, to make a plan which will enable
Him to be with it "all days, even to the consummation
of the world" (St. Matt. xxvm. 20), and finally to
judge it that He may "present it to Himself a glorious
Church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing
but that it should be holy and without blemish."
(Eph.v.27).

If my privileges are greater than those of St John
the Baptist, my responsibilities are greater also. As
I think how faithfully he fulfilled one of the great
est offices ever entrusted to man, let me remember
that I too have a special office given me to fulfil, and
it is no less important for me to fulfil it faithfully,
than it was for St. John. It may be that my office is
a very lowly one, that I have only one talent, but
JESUS is taking notice how I am trading with it. What
have His messengers to say when He asks : "What
went you out to see ?" Let the season of Advent inspire
me to be up and doing -- faithful in that which is
least, living as one who has to give an account of
each talent, each occasion of merit, each opportunity
of influencing another, each inspiration of grace.

4. Light giving. "He was a burning and a shining
Light." This was the secret of John's greatness, of
his humility, of his courage, of his zeal. His heart so
burned with love for God and zeal for His service that
it shone out on all with whom he came in contact.

58 ORTUS CHRISTI

Let me make one last examen on myself here. Do
I feel sometimes that my influence on others is very
small, that my light seems to be hidden under a bushel,
that try as I will, I cannot make any impression?
May it not be that I am thinking too much about the
shining of the light and too little about the burning ?
The candle must burn before it can shine. If my heart
is in constant touch with the Sacred Heart of JESUS
it will burn with His love and zeal, and the shining
will follow as a matter of course, I need not trouble
about it ; but if I allow anything to separate my
heart from His, even ever so little, the fire in my heart
will die down ; there may be a little glow left, unless
I leave it too long, but there is not enough to "shine
before men." "What went you out to see ?" What
answer would those with whom I live, those who
know me best, have to give ?"

Colloquy with JESUS and St. John the Baptist.

Resolution. To win the approval of JESUS to-day
by the way in which I prepare for His Coming.

Spiritual Bouquet. "What went you out to see?"

"INCARNATUS EST"

Regem venturum Dominum venite adoremus. [Come let us
adore the King our Lord Who is to come.]

ist. Prelude. Picture of the Annunciation.
2nd. Prelude. Grace to understand the mystery of
the Incarnation.

POINT I. VENITE ADOREMUS.

"Come let us adore the King our Lord Who is to
come." These are the opening words of the Invitatory
which the Church uses every day at Matins during the
first fortnight of Advent. Let us turn then from the

"INCARNATUS EST" 59

Precursor, who has taught us so many lessons, to
JESUS Christ Himself. What is He doing during these
months of waiting before Christmas ? He, too, is
preparing, preparing for the work for which He has
already come into the world, although He is not
yet manifest. John the Baptist has pointed Him
out to me : "Behold the Lamb of God !" Now I
will do what his disciples did — leave "the Friend
of the Bridegroom" for the Bridegroom Himself.
He has become incarnate for me; it behoves me then to
keep as close to Him as possible, to love Him with all my
heart and to copy Him as far as I can. He is God and
therefore there can be nothing imperfect about Him ;
from the first moment of the Word being made flesh
in the womb of His Mother till "she brought forth her
first-born Son" on Christmas day, His faculties, His
reason, His intelligence, His sensibilities were all in
a state of perfection ; He knew the past, the present,
and the future ; and He, the Source of grace, was
pouring forth grace on all around Him. Directly we
understand this, we feel that we must draw near, not
only to adore but to sympathize, to wonder, to love,
to learn, to imitate. For those who understand the
Incarnation, His work did not begin on Christmas Day,
but on the Feast of the Annunciation, when Mary said:
"Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it done unto
me according to Thy word." What happened at
that moment ? The Holy Ghost overshadowed her, the
Body of Our Lord was formed from her pure blood,
God created the human Soul to dwell in it, and by the
act of the Incarnation that Soul and Body became the
Soul and Body of the Word, the Second Person of
the Blessed Trinity ; Mary became the Mother of God
and Gabriel worshipped before the Tabernacle of the
Word made flesh.

Mary was the next to adore; Joseph, Elizabeth, John,
Zachary followed, and there may have been other
privileged ones to whom Our Lord Himself revealed

60 ORTUS CHRISTI

His secret ; but the world at large went on us usual —
it "knew Him not." The same thing happens every
day in our midst. When the priest with his God hid
den on his breast passes on his way to give the Bread
of Life to some sufferer, only a few privileged ones
know the secret and offer their silent adoration.
Venite adoremus.

POINT II. DIVINE ADORATION.

It was a new life that Our Lord entered upon at
the moment of the Incarnation. He had had His Divine
Life from all eternity, but God had never before been
man. He now for the first time could express Himself
through a human body. God could adore with human
lips, could love with a human heart, could suffer
through human senses, could plan with a human
intelligence, could reason with a human mind. The con
sequence of the union of the two natures was that
the human nature was perfect, more than perfect —
it was Divine, and God received at the moment of
the Incarnation, the first perfect human act of ador
ation, the first perfect human act of love, of humility
and of all the other virtues. The God-Man could adore
perfectly, because being God He knew God and knew
what adoration was fitting for God ; it was God ador
ing God and yet it was a human act, the act of a
man like ourselves. At that moment God received
what He wanted from one of the human race. The
first breath drawn by his Son Incarnate made it
worth His while to have created man in spite of the
Fall. He received not only reparation but all He ex
pected from the human race when He first created
it. He was satisfied, and would have been satisfied
even if that first moment had also been His last on
earth. The Incarnation would have done its work,
the justice of God could have required no more —
a human will was perfectly submissive to His Will,

"INCARNATUS EST" 61

a human heart beat in unison with His, a human crea
ture offered itself as a victim for the race : "Behold, I
come do Thy Will, O My God," I have desired it. (Ps.
xxxix. 8, 9). God received at the moment of the Incar
nation a higher act of worship than He had ever re
ceived from all the nine choirs of Angels, and that act
was a human act. Did the Angels who fell understand
this and was this the cause of their rebellion? It is true
that this first moment of the Incarnation would have
more than satisfied God, but it was not enough for
the God-made-Man. He would go on, on even to
the death of the cross, not to satisfy His Father's
justice, but His own love, and to show to those whom
by His Incarnation He had made His brethren to
what lengths love can go. Every breath He drew was
as perfect as the first — a perfect offering, a perfect
act of adoration ; every beat of His Heart until He
said : "Father, into Thy Hands I commend My Spirit,"
was a perfect act of love ; every act, every thought
every word perfect, because they were the acts,
thoughts and words of God.

POINT in. THE PRACTICAL CONCLUSION.

What have I to do with these sublime truths ?
Everything, for He was incarnate for me. What does
it mean ? It means that He is my Brother and that
He is giving to God what God must have, but what I
cannot give Him ; and that all I have to do is to
unite myself to Him and to offer my imperfect acts
of adoration, love, humility with His perfect ones.
He has given Himself to me, that I may give Him
back to God — a perfect offering with which God
will be entirely satisfied. My God, I cannot adore
Thee as I should, though I desire to do so with my
whole heart, but JESUS is there incarnate for me, He is
adoring Thee perfectly for me, accept His adoration
and mine with it. My God, I love Thee, but I cannot

62 ORTUS CHRISTI

love Thee enough, I cannot love Thee as I ought, I
cannot love Thee as Thou deservest to be loved, but
JESUS is incarnate for me, He has a human Heart
which is loving Thee perfectly ; I put my heart in
side His, accept His love and mine with it. My God,
I want to be perfectly submissive, perfectly humble,
a perfect victim, but great though my desires are, I
cannot arrive at the perfection which Thou dost
require. Oh, look upon my Brother incarnate for
me, accept all His perfections ; let me offer my little
struggles and desires and efforts with all that He is
doing, for is it not all for me ? "Through Him and
with Him and in Him."

Let me go to Nazareth to Mary ; she will welcome
me for she knows that He has become incarnate for me.
The Angel has just left her to take back her Fiat to
Heaven. I will take his place and on bended knees
before that holy shrine where the new Life has just
begun, I will meditate. Never before perhaps have
I so felt the need of thanksgiving, of adoration, of
wonder, of love. All I offer now and from henceforth
must pass through Mary to her Son, Who will offer
my gifts with His own to His Father.

Colloquy with God-Incarnate.

Resolution. To thank God often to-day for the Incar
nation.

Spiritual Bouquet "He was incarnate by the Holy
Ghost of the Virgin Mary and was made Man."

"EX MARIA VIRGINE"

,,Apud me est fons vitae." [In me is the Source of life.]

ist. Prelude. Mary, just after the Angel had depart
ed from her.

2nd. Prelude. Grace to understand Mary's part in
the Incarnation.

POINT I. MARY SHARES ALL WITH HER SON.

All the joy that the Incarnation brought to the
Blessed Trinity, Mary to a great extent must have
shared. There was the joy of God the Father, because
He saw His designs in creating man fulfilled, His
justice satisfied and a human creature doing Him
perfect homage and bringing Him so much glory.
There was the joy of God the Son, because at last
He was united to our human nature, because He
being God had nevertheless a human Soul and a human
Body, to which He could unite all the Divine perfec
tions, and by means of which He could carry out all
His Father's designs for the lost human race. There
was the joy of the Holy Spirit Who had overshadowed
Mary and by His Divine power created in her a Soul
and a Body so beautiful that they were worthy to
be taken by the Eternal Word and for ever united
to the Divinity. The Holy Ghost saw now a human
Soul into which He could pour all the grace that would
be needed by the whole human race. Of His fulness
all were to receive (St. John 1. 16).

And what was the means whereby all this joy was
given to the Blessed Trinity ? The Body which had
been formed from the most pure flesh and blood of

64 ORTUS CHRIS TI

Mary. She had lent herself at God's request to be
the instrument used, and now she was the Tabernacle
where the God-Man lay hidden. As He shared His
life with His Mother, since it was her blood which
was coursing through His Veins, so He shared all
His acts with her. That first perfect act of adoration
made by a human Soul to God was shared by Mary —
she adored too. That first whole hearted oblation of
a human Soul to God was shared by Mary when she
said her : "Fiat mihi secundum verbum Tmim."
That first perfect act of love from a human Heart
was shared by Mary for how close was the union be
tween the Sacred Heart of JESUS and the most pure
heart of Mary ! When JESUS made acts of reparation
of humility, of conformity to His Father's Will, Mary
made them too — she could not but do so, for her
life was so closely bound up with that of her Son ; He
became the mainspring of all she did. It was the
charity and humility in His Heart that made her go
to visit her couzin Elizabeth and make herself her
handmaid; it was His salutation that made hers so
powerful with regard both to Elizabeth and to the
infant John ; it was the thanksgiving in His Heart
which overflowed into hers and made her sing her
Magnificat. That Mary spent the nine months in ador
ation we may well believe, but she spent them also
in union with her Son, sharing all with Him and
giving us a perfect model of the interior life — which
means not only that God shares in the acts of the
soul, but also that the soul shares in the acts of God,
Emmanuel — God with us — in order that we may be
"with the King for His works" (I Paralip. iv. 23).

POINT II. MARY MY EXAMPLE.

He was incarnate for me, and His Mother is my
Mother ; it is to her that I must look now to teach me
how to spend these days before His birth. Teach me,
my Mother, to follow the great example which you set

"EX MARIA VIRGINE" 65

teach me, too, to rejoice in the wonders of the Incarna
tion. Who should be more filled with joy than I for
whom He was incarnate ? Teach me what the interior
life means, teach me to allow Him to be the mainspring
within me of all I do, so that the life which I live is
not mine but His, the words which I speak not mine
but His, — JESUS acting, thinking, speaking through
me. This is the interior life which Mary understood
so well and lived so perfectly during her time of wait
ing. There is, however, another side to the interior
life, and this is the one we want to meditate about
more especially, while we are thinking of the Son
of God incarnate in the womb of the Blessed Virgin.
He has taken human nature, my nature, and joined
it to the Godhead. He has made Himself a partaker
of my human nature in order that I may be a partak
er of His divine nature. I must not only think, then,
of His working in and through me, but of my work
ing in and through Him. Mary entered into and
shared not only His Acts of adoration and love and
praise, but also the work He had come to do, His
plans for the Redemption of the world. "They dwelt
with the King for His works , and they abode there"
(I Paral iv. 23.) How true this was of Mary ! It is in this
that I must try to copy her. "I will abide in the
Tabernacle of the Most High," and I will offer my
self for His works, His interests shall be mine, He
shall feel that one soul at least, sympathizes and cares
and intends to co-operate in the great work He has
come to do.

Let me, then, as the season of Advent is fast passing,
ask myself once again : Am I doing all I can for the
spread of the Kingdom which He came to this earth
to set up ? Am I trying to look at the world with the
eyes of love with which He regarded it, when He first
made Himself incarnate for it ? Am I helping His
poor, tending his sick, instructing His ignorant,
bringing Home His sheep, loving His little ones, com-

66 ORTUS CHRIS TI

forting His sorrowful ones ? Such are "His works,"
and if I would do them, I must dwell with the King
and learn to do them in His way — I must live an in
terior life.

POINT III. ALL PASSES THROUGH MARY.

It is only those who do not understand the Incarna-
nation who stumble over this statement. What could
be more natural ? If He chose to redeem the world
through Mary, to do all His great works which de
pend on the Incarnation — such as the foundation
of the Church with all her Sacraments — through
Mary, is it strange that when I want to help the King
in His works, I should do the same and put my little
gifts for the King into her hands ? Rather would it
be strange if I wanted to work on a different plan from
my King's. She is the Janua coeli, the Turris Da-
vidica, the Sacrarium Spiritus Sancti ; the Tabernacle
where He was incarnate for me. Through her and
by means of her, He hands me all the graces I
receive. What more natural than that I should
make use of such a messenger to take back my
offerings ? And do they lose in the transaction ?
Surely they must gain, first because she will purify
them and add to them her own merits and graces,
and secondly because a gift presented by His own
Mother cannot but be enhanced in value.

Blessed Grignon de Montfort says : "God has chosen
her for the treasurer, steward and dispenser of all
His graces, so that all His graces and all His gifts
pass through her hands ; and according to the power
she has received over them, as St. Bernardine teaches,
she gives to whom she wills, as she likes, and as much
as she likes, the graces of the Eternal Father, the
virtues of JESUS Christ and the gifts of the Holy Ghost."
We may, if we like, "do all our actions with Mary,
in Mary, by Mary, for Mary, in order to do them more

"EX MARIA VIRGINE" 67

perfectly with JESUS, in JESUS, by JESUS, and for
JESUS, our Last End." l

If I am a child of Mary in anything more than in
name, I shall not hesitate to use this great privilege
which is offered to me, knowing that by so doing,
not only will the value of my prayers and penances
and actions be enhanced in God's sight, but my
merits and graces will be increased. Mary will see to
it that her children who thus trust her have a Benja
min's portion.

Colloquy with Mary, asking her to obtain for me
during this waiting time the grace to trust her with
all my secrets for her Son.

Resolution. To dwell "with the King for His
works" to-day.

Spiritual Bouquet. Janua coeli, ora pro nobis.

"THE LORD IS NIGH"

"Brethren, rejoice in the Lord always ; again, I say rejoice. Let
your modesty be known to all men. The Lord is nigh. Be nothing
solicitous ; but in everything by prayer and supplication with
thanksgiving let your petitions be made known to God. And
the peace of God which surpasseth all understanding, keep your
hearts and minds in Christ JESUS." [Phil. iv. 4:7]

[The "Epistle" for the Third Sunday of Advent.]

ist. Prelude. Before the Tabernacle.
2nd. Prelude. Grace to remember the Presence of
God.

The Lord is nigh because by His grace He is within
us, because by His omnipresence He is "not far from
every one of us" (Acts. xvn. 27), because in the Blessed

1 "The Secret of Mary unveiled to the devout soul" by Louis-
Marie Grignon de Montfort.

68 ORTUS CHRISTI

Sacrament He is with us "all days, even to the con
summation of the world" (St. Matt. xxvm. 20)
and because it may be to-day that He will come in
judgment. In consequence of this nearness of our
God to us, from whatever point of view we regard
it, St. Paul tells us that there are certain practices
which are incumbent upon us.

POINT I. "REJOICE IN THE LORD ALWAYS."

To rejoice always -- this is my duty, because the
Lord is nigh. When joy is absent from me, it is because
faith in His nearness is absent. When clouds hide the
Sun of Justice, and I am disposed to be sad and de
spondent, let me make an Act of Faith in His Presence :
My God, I know that Thou art within my soul, because
I have reason to believe that I am in the state of
grace. My JESUS, I believe that Thou art there in the
Tabernacle. My God, I believe that Thou art truly
present behind every person and every circumstance
and every trial. My JESUS, I believe that it may be
to-day that Thou wilt summon me to stand before
Thee as my Judge ... I shall find that Acts of Faith,
such as these, will help to dispel the despondency and
send me on my way rejoicing. How can I do anything
but rejoice when I think of the Divine Inhabitation?
Can I be sad when I realize the presence of JESUS in
the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar and all that
means to me? Can I allow circumstances and trials
to depress and crush me when I know with what
infinite love and care they have been arranged for me
by Him who hides Himself in each one of them ? And
if the thought that the Lord is nigh in judgment can
hardly in itself be a thought that brings joy, yet, when
I know how much value He sets on joy, I should like
Him to find me rejoicing when He pays that always
unexpected visit to my soul. The Lord is nigh, there
fore rejoice. To rejoice in the Lord is always possible,

"THE LORD IS NIGH" 69

it only means a realization of the supernatural, and
as soon as that is realized, everything is seen in a
different light. "In Thy light we shall see light"
(Ps. xxxv. 10), and "at Thy right hand are delights
even to the end" (Ps. xv. n). It is just because the
Lord is nigh that I cannot but rejoice, and it is only
when I forget His Presence that the clouds have the
power to chill and depress me and rob me of my joy.
St. Paul is afraid that I may forget, and so he adds :
"Again I say : Rejoice."

POINT II. "LET YOUR MODESTY BE KNOWN TO ALL

MEN."

The Greek word which is translated "modesty" means
more, it means fairness, kindness, gentleness, mod
eration, self-restraint, not insisting on strict justice.
These are the qualities by which I am to be known
to all men, because the Lord is nigh. He is within me -
always if I will by His grace and often by the Blessed
Sacrament. I may truly be said to "bear God in my
body." What follows ? I am His representative to
the world ; He is living His life in the wrorld through
me ; if people want to know something about God and
what He is like, they ought to be able to find out by
watching my life.

The Lord is nigh - - my gentleness has to recall
this fact to others. "The servant of the Lord must
not wrangle, but be mild towards all men." (2. Tim.
n. 24) he must not stand up for his rights, though
strictly speaking he may have them ; he must not be
wedded to his own opinions and ever anxious to give
them ; he must not argue and strive to show that
he is in the right, which means that everybody else
is in the wrong. No, if he does these things, he is
giving an altogether false representation of Christ
Who is within him, of the Lord Who is so nigh.

Some people are gentle by nature, but it is not this
natural quality of gentleness, often a mark of weak-

70 ORTUS CHRISTI

ness of character and will, which is to be known to
all men. It needs a strong will and much self-re
straint to show the gentleness of Christ ; it means the
temper kept in check when slighting, insulting or
unkind words are said ; it means keeping silence
when misjudged or falsely accused because " JESUS
was silent ;" it means keeping back the cutting word
or the stinging sarcasm and letting them die way
before His Presence ; it means giving up a cherished
plan or desire and letting no one except Him Who
asks for the sacrifice know what it costs ; it means
being able to let a matter drop, though we may
be in the right — such is the gentleness of Christ,
which we have to make known so that by our behav
iour others may be attracted to Him Who is so
nigh. What a point it would give to our prepara
tion for His Coming this Advent, if each day found
us striving to let our gentleness win others to Him and
make them long to know the Babe of Bethlehem.

POINT III. "BE NOTHING SOLICITOUS."

Take no thought, for your Heavenly Father knoweth
that you have need. Do not be solicitous, careful,
anxious about anything, there is no need for the Lord
is nigh. He knows what is best for His child. He can
alter things if He likes, leave all to Him. All worry and
anxiety only come really from want of faith. Does a
child worry when its father is near ? No, it leaves
everything to him without any care. The Lord is
nigh, be nothing solicitous. The way may seem block
ed, but it is not blocked to Him ; the Lord is still nigh,
"He knoweth my way" (Job xxm. 10), is it not
enough ?

Let me love and trust and continually talk to Him
Who is so near ; let me remember that I am never
alone, that the difficulties and problems and sorrows
of life concern two, that the responsibility is shared,

"THE LORD IS NIGH" 71

that the important business of life is a joint one.
Surely with such a Partner, One who is never absent
but always nigh, I need be in nothing solicitous.

POINT IV. "!N EVERYTHING BY PRAYER AND SUPPLI
CATION WITH THANKSGIVING, LET YOUR PETITIONS BE
MADE KNOWN UNTO GOD."

The conclusion I arrived at in the last point is a
just one, but I am not on that account to do nothing.
He must have my active co-operation and whether I
am working for my own salvation or for the salvation
of others or, which ought to be the case, for both, I
must in everything I do, let my petitions be made
known unto God, that is, I must never act on my
own responsibility. I am going to see such and
such a person, come with me ; I have this letter to
write, tell me what to say; I have a difficult matter
to settle, give me the necessary wisdom and tact ;
I am going to rest, or to take my food or my recrea
tion, I want Thee with me all the same - - such
must be my requests. What about my mistakes, the
things I forget and leave out, the faults that I mean
with all my heart not to commit, but which I am
always falling into all the same ? Ah, it is here that
the inestimable benefit of having such an all-power
ful Partner comes in. Instead of bewailing my in
capability, which only makes me still less capable,
I must make my requests known to Him. What sort
of requests will these be ? I have committed that
fault, made that same mistake again, please for
give me and correct it ; I have forgotten to say
something I meant to say, please say it for me ; I
have been stiff, unyielding, ungracious, discourteous,
harsh, severe, please make up for my deficiencies and
whatever happens do not let them judge Thee by
Thy representative, make them understand that He
for whom I am working is never anything but gra-

72 ORTUS CHRIS TI

cious and gentle, that He never breaks the bruised
reed nor quenches the smoking flax ; do not let me
spoil Thy work. Such are the prayers and supplica
tions by which I should continually be making known
my needs to Him Who is always nigh.

And what about the thanksgiving ? This is most
necessary, otherwise, ashamed though I am to confess
it, I shall be attributing the successes to my own pow
ers and skill and capability ! It seems hardly cred
ible, but unfortunately past experience tells me
that it is all too true. In order to guard against such a
distorted and absurd view of things, St. Paul tells
us not to forget the Thanksgiving. The Lord is nigh,
let me turn to Him and say : Deo gratias, for it is He
Who has prevented my awkwardness from spoiling His
work. He loves to be thanked and He notices when
He is not .Let me be thoroughly persuaded that the
work is all His, and that if anything succeeds that I
do, it is only because He has allowed His success to
pass through me, thus thanksgiving will not only be
easy but natural. But who is ever going to persuade
me that no glory is due to me ? "Who is sufficient
for these things?" "He Who condescends to be my
Co-worker. He can do even that, if I love Him suffic
iently to want Him to have all the glory.

POINT V. THE RESULT — PEACE.

"The peace of God which passeth all understand
ing (shall) keep your hearts and minds in Christ
JESUS." This will be the result, not of Our Lord be
ing nigh, but of our realization of His nearness. A great
peace will keep, that is, take possession of, our hearts
and minds. Everything will be right because it comes
straight from God's Hands. "My peace I give unto
you, not as the world giveth do I give unto you"
(St. John xiv. 27) God's peace passes the under
standing of the world, it has nothing to compare with

"THE LORD IS NIGH" 73

it. It passes the understanding of God's children too.
It is one of the mysteries with which He blesses
His own and makes life possible for them in a world
of turmoil.

Colloquy with Him Who is nigh.

Resolution. To remember that I am never alone.

Spiritual Bouquet. "The Lord is nigh."

THE INTERIOR LIFE (i)
HUMILITY.

"I am Thy servant, I am Thy servant and the son of Thy
handmaid." [Ps. cxv. 16] Janua coeli, ora pro nobis.

ist. Prelude. The Gate of Heaven.

2nd. Prelude. Grace to enter that gate and learn.

We are going now to keep very close to Mary. She
is passing all these precious days in communion with
her Son and He is teaching her what conformity to
Himself means. But she has Him not for herself alone
but for all those for whom He has made Himself in
carnate and has come to die. The time passed within
that "Gate of Heaven" was the first stage of His
earthly journey and He was there for me, for my learn
ing. He was already my Model. Let me go, then,
to-day to the "Gate of Heaven," go to Mary and ask
to be allowed to study some of those heavenly les
sons which were so dear to her heart. Janua coeli,
ora pro nobis. "Remember, O most gracious Virgin

74 ORTUS CHRISTI

Mary, that never was it known that any who implor
ed thy help or sought thy intercession were left un
aided. Inspired with this confidence I fly unto thee....
O, Mother of the Word Incarnate despise not my
petitions, but in thy mercy hear and answer me/'

POINT I. THE HUMILITY OF JESUS.

We cannot contemplate this stage of Our Lord's
life without being struck first of all by the humility
and self-abasement of it, by the way in which in some
sense He annihilated Himself that He might do His
Father's Will. St. Paul says : "He emptied Himself....
being made in the likeness of men" (Phil. 11.7) . He strip
ped Himself, robbed Himself of all that He possessed :
Semetipsum exinanivit. We know that Mary, His
created Home, was chaste and pure, that no breath
of sin had ever touched her, that the Holy Spirit
Himself had overshadowed her and had undertaken
the preparation and the adornment of the earthly
Tabernacle of the Word ; but pure and holy though
she was, Mary was only a creature and He was the
Creator. He was God and she was one of the human
race. His place was on the highest throne of Heaven
and yet "He abhorred not the Virgin's womb" but
there lived hidden from the sight of all, like any
other infant and yet wholly unlike, because He had
full possession of His faculties and intelligence. In the
manger He will be seen, and so wiU be loved,
pitied and worshipped ; there will be many consol
ations which will go far to lessen and soften His humi
liations, but here, He is alone, hidden ; His very ex
istence not even suspected. He has annihilated Him
self, made Himself nothing. He could have taken our
nature, had He so wished, without all these humili
ations ; why then did He despise not the Virgin's
womb ? Because this is to be His principle all through
His life, He will love "unto the end". He will leave

THE INTERIOR LIFE (i) 75

nothing undone that He could possibly do. He came
to do His Father's Will and He will do it thoroughly.
He will bear all the humiliations because He wants
to be my Model and to teach me that there is only
one way of learning humility.

POINT II. THE HUMILITY OF MARY.

Mary, though she cannot see Him, is sharing in
timately all His humiliations. She knows as no one
else can all He is going through ; and because she is
His Mother she feels more intensely than anyone
could what His humiliations are, she can never for
get them. She shares all with Him and He lets her ;
her sympathy is His consolation. Of all the virtues
of the interior life, humility is the one which is the
most strongly marked in Mary, and perhaps more
strongly during these nine months than at any other
time. It was her humility which attracted the Eter
nal Word from Heaven to take up His dwelling in
His earthly Tabernacle. It was her humility which
made her visit her cousin Elizabeth. It was her hu
mility which made her sing in her Magnificat of the
great things God had done for her and how He had
regarded the low estate of His handmaid. It was her
humility which made her ready to suffer any humili
ation rather than disclose God's secret to St. Joseph.
It was her humility which made her incapable of
resenting all the humiliations she had to bear at
Bethlehem on Chrismas Eve -- and all this humility,
all this power to bear humiliations, came from the
fact that she was living an interior life, Jiving a hid
den life with her Son, looking at everything from His
point of view and not from her own.

POINT III. "LEARN OF ME."

Now let me turn from the interior life of JESUS and
Mary to my own. JESUS lived His interior life for me.
If He allowed Mary to share it, He will allow me, for

76 ORTUS CHRISTI

He said once that He counted as His Mother all those
who do His Will. His Will is quite clear: "Learn of
me for I am humble." Dare I go to the "Gate of Hea
ven" and say that I want to learn to be humble,
that is, that I want to copy JESUS and Mary in their
humiliations ? It takes a great deal of courage to ask
for humiliations, and perhaps it is almost impossible
to do so without some pride lurking in the request ;
but what I can do is to be so anxious to learn to be
humble as He bids me, that I ask for strength to bear
the humiliations that He sends. How do I bear them ?
Do I say: Oh well, it is a humiliation, I must bear it!
or, Oh well, I shall never learn humility without
humiliations ! or : I am always getting humiliations,
some people are, but I gladly accept them ! All such
speeches have their source, not in humility but in
pride. Can we imagine Mary talking like this ? Humili
ations will never do their blessed work of making
me humble if I thus use them to attract attention to
my supposed virtue . A humiliation is spoiled the
moment it sees the light ; it has no strength left in
it wherewith to produce humility. Do I want to be
humble ? Then let me go to that quiet retreat where
JESUS is humiliating Himself for me, let me take all
my humiliations there. When I am left out, forgotten,
despised, when my help is unasked, my opinion dis
regarded, when things are said of me that are hard to
bear, when reflections are made on my actions, let
me go at once to where JESUS is hidden and hide myself
and my pain there, my one fear being lest anyone but
He should suspect my pain, and this not from stoi
cism or natural self-restraint, so pleasing and consoling
to self, but because I am afraid of spoiling my chance
and preventing the humiliation from doing its work.
If I can only deposit it safely in His Heart before an
other sees it and robs me of my jewel, all will be well.
He who suffered all those humiliations for me, will
know how to ease my pain, He will tell me what a

THE INTERIOR LIFE (i) 77

consolation it is to Him that His child understands
and is trying to make a faithful copy.

Colloquy. O Mary, "Gate of Heaven" keep the gate
wide open and beckon me in whenever you see me in dan
ger of falling through my pride. You know the danger
ous moments, please forestall them for me, and when
I am safe, and listening to the Sacred Heart beating
for me, the pain of the humiliation will be turned
into joy and perhaps I shall make Him feel that His
humiliations have not been in vain.

Resolution To examine myself to-day on how I
take my humiliations and to resolve how I will
take them for the future.

Spiritual Bouquet "Learn of Me for I am humble"

THE INTERIOR LIFE (2)
OBLATION.

"Sacrifice and oblation Thou wouldest not, but a BodyThou
hast fitted to Me. Holocausts for sin did not please Thee. Then
said I : Behold I come. In the head of the book it is written of
Me, that I should do Thy Will, O God." [Heb. x. 5-7]

ist Prelude. "Thy holy Tabernacle, which Thou
hast prepared from the beginning" (Wisdom ix. 8).
2nd. Prelude. Grace to be generous.

POINT I. THE OBLATION OF JESUS.

As soon as the Word had taken possession of His
earthly home, He began to live His new life - - a
life in all its fulness of knowledge and of grace and
which will ever remain at its highest point, a life of
infinite worth, a life lived for others, a life abound
ing in merits and satisfactions, a life of contempla
tion and yet of activity, a life to be studied carefully

78 ORTUS CHRISTI

by all who seek to live an interior life and specially
by those who for the love of their Incarnate God hide
themselves in the cloister.

This new life was before everything else a life of
oblation. The first act of the Word Incarnate was
to offer Himself to His Father : Here I am ; I have
come to do Thy Will and I have come to do it not for
Myself but for all creation ; I offer Myself to do what
it cannot do and to satisfy Thy claims. He made Him
self, then, from the first moment of His existence a
Victim — a Victim laid on the altar. This was His
first posture, and He will keep it not only during this
first stage of His life, but all through His life and all
through His Sacramental life, whether the Host
is offered to God at the Holy Mass or is living Its life
of a Victim in the Tabernacle ; and in Heaven He
will still be "the Lamb as it had been slain."

With the oblation of Himself, so acceptable to the
Father, the Victim offers all that concerns Him, all
for which He has come to this earth, all His designs
for man's salvation. He submits all His plans for
His great building, the Holy Catholic Church, of
which He offers Himself to be' the Chief Corner-stone,
dwelling in it as its life throughout all time. He offers
Himself also to bear all the effects of His oblation and
to drink the chalice to the dregs. He offers Himself
as a Surety for the whole human race and for it He
offers all His merits and satisfactions. He keeps no
thing back — the whole of the life just begun is offered
for the glory of God and the salvation of the world.
It is a whole burnt-offering, a holocaust offered at
its very beginning to Him Who "spared not even
His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all."
(Rom. vin. 32).

POINT ii. THE OBLATION OF MARY.

Mary lived her life with her Son and to her He com
municated His secrets. It is impossible to imagine

THE INTERIOR LIFE (2) 79

that He did not reveal to her His plans and designs
which were the reason of His coming to this earth,
and how He was going to carry them out. She knew,
then, that she was the Mother of a Victim ; and when
He offered Himself to God, she joined in, offering herself
and her Son for all that He wished. "Behold the hand
maid of the Lord!" Here I am, I offer myself to Thee,
do what Thou wilt with me. This was Mary's attitude
all through her life from the time when her Fiat was
a sign for the Incarnation to take place, till she stood
on Calvary's Hill assisting at the offering of the Vic
tim. Truly had the Mother of Sorrows caught the
spirit of her Son ; all through her life she regarded
Him as a Victim. When He was forty days old she
formally offered Him to God, and her life though
bound up with His was nevertheless detached from
Him, as from something given to another. Now
at this early stage of His life, Mary is learning her
lesson and gaining her strength. She is doing it by
leading an interior life, hidden with her Son.

O my Mother, as I come to-day to the holy Taber
nacle "prepared from the beginning" where the Sac
red Victim lie.> hidden, help me to make my life one with
His as thou didst, help me to detach myself from
everything for His sake and to say my Fiat when
ever He asks for it.

POINT III. LEARN OF ME.

If I want to live an interior life, I must model it
on the life of JESUS hidden in the womb of His Mother.
He wants me to lead it for He is ever saying : Learn of
Me Who led this life for you. An interior life must
be essentially a life of oblation. This is its foundation :
the offering of the soul as a holocaust to God and then
regarding itself as a victim, all it has and does and is
and thinks and plans, belonging not to itself but to
God. It lies on the altar waiting to be consumed ; it

8o ORTUS CHRISTI

is not surprised when it is treated as a victim and feels
the flames, not surprised, that is, when it is forgotten
and thought nothing of; its life is hidden, how should
people remember it ! If it has to suffer, it considers
it the most natural thing in the world for a victim. If
its plans are all frustrated, it knows that it is lying
there on the altar to do God's Will, not its own, and
that this is only the fire consuming the victim ; if
it did not happen thus the victim might indeed be
surprised and anxious, wondering whether God had
accepted its sacrifice. "Present your bodies a living
sacrifice, holy, pleasing unto God, your reasonable
service," (Rom. xn. I). The sacrifice is ever living,
and ever being consumed. The victim feels keenly
all the many processes by which God shows that He
has accepted the offering, but if it copies its Model,
there will be no complaint, no drawing back of the
offering, no wishing that it had chosen an easier
course, no wondering whether it had made a mistake
in its vocation ; rather will there be joy in its heart
because in its humble way it is like its Master, and
each fresh touch of the fire will be to it a fresh
proof that God has not forgotten it, but has taken
it at its word and counts on it to be all that it
promised to be. What is necessary for all this ? Only
one thing : Love. If I love, I can do it. "Walk in love
as Christ also hath loved us and given Himself an
oblation for us."

O my little JESUS, hidden there for me and offering
Thyself for me, teach me to be generous, teach me to
love Thee as Thou deservest ; help me to lie quietly
and unresistingly on the altar. I am not alone. Thou
art there, bearing all with me and giving me the ne
cessary strength to bear all for Thee. Help me to sa
crifice willingly all my cherished desires and tastes,
all my will. Thou didst withhold nothing from me,
help me to withhold nothing from Thee. So shall I
make Thee some reparation for all the time wasted

THE INTERIOR LIFE (2) 81

in the past, for all the sins committed against Thy love ;
so only can I obey Thy command : "Learn of Me." and
make some little return for Thy infinite love.

Colloquy with JESUS and His blessed Mother.

Resolution. To offer myself as a victim to-day.

Spiritual Bouquet. "Walk in love as Christ also
hath loved us, and hath delivered Himself for us, an
oblation and a sacrifice to God." (Eph. v. 2).

THE INTERIOR LIFE (3)

IMPRISONMENT.

"I was in prison and you came to Me. "Lord when did we see
Thee in prison ?" [St. Matt. xxv. 36, 39]

ist. Prelude. Tunis Davidica.

2nd. Prelude. Grace to visit Him in His prison.

POINT I. DEPENDENCE.

Our blessed Lord's life, during the nine months,
was a life of imprisonment. He chose for Himself a
position of dependence, helplessness and inability.
He Who was the Light of the world chose to live in
darkness; He Whom the Heavens cannot contain
chose a more cramped position than any prisoner
has ever had to endure ; He Who was infinite allowed
Himself to be confined ; He Who was immortal took
a mortal body. He endured all the sufferings that
helplessness and inability and immobility entail ;
and we have to keep reminding ourselves that He
was fully alive to all His sufferings. We are not making
an imaginary picture, but trying to realize what
were the actual facts of those nine months. His Mother

82 ORTUS CHRISTI

understood, let us try to do the same. Let us go to
the "Tower of David" where Our Lord is kept a pris
oner and let us remember that He is there for us.
Let us not be amongst those to whom He will have
to say sadly : "I was in prison and you did not visit
Me." Later on, at the end of His life, He will allow His
own people to take Him prisoner and will stand still
while they put the chains on His wrists and will al
low Himself to be dragged where they wish. Later on
still He will choose to be imprisoned in the little
Host and to make Himself to the end of time our
Prisoner of Love.

Thy imprisonments were all voluntary, my JESUS,
they were all suffered out of love and out of love for
me. Oh, may these visits that I am paying Thee dur
ing the blessed season of Advent result in my im
bibing more of the spirit of my imprisoned Master.
Mine too is a voluntary imprisonment ; I am His cap
tive because I said: I will be His servant, "I will not
go out free" (Ex. xxi. 5). I gave up my liberty,
preferring to be His prisoner rather than the devil's
free man. Naturally He takes me at my word, but oh,
sometimes prison-life is very hard to bear ! He chains
me to a bed of sickness, where I must lie still and see
the work I long to do left undone or, what is perhaps
harder still, badly done; He gives me great desires
and no means of fulfilling them ; He fills me with
plans and schemes for His glory and then seems to
make it impossible for them to be realized ; He trains
me, as I think, for some particular position and then
detains me in another for which it seems to me I
have not the least aptitude ; He sets limits to my
strength ; He seems to keep me always in the back
ground ; He appears to use everybody else except me
for His work ; He seems to cramp my efforts and
allow me no scope for the talents He has given me.

The Divine Prisoner Himself answers my plaints :
My child, all these things only prove that you are

THE INTERIOR LIFE (3) 83

My prisoner, that I have taken you at your word
and that I do with you as I wish. Your time is not
lost any more than Mine was. By doing My Will, how
ever inscrutable it may seem to you, you are doing
far more for Me than if you were doing your own.
Trust me, be patient, bear and suffer all for Me, Who
am a Prisoner for you. I love you to be dependent
on Me, I love you to walk by faith, I love you to
trust Me, and so I am constantly doing little things to
remind you that you are My prisoner. Strive to be a
prisoner of love as I am, that is (i) one who is in pri
son for love of another, (2) one who loves his chains, (3)
one whose every act in prison is done to please Me.

POINT II. DARKNESS.

How much darkness adds to the sufferings of prison
life ! It was a suffering which JESUS living in Mary en
dured for me; and yet while He, the Light of the world
was there, her blessed womb was flooded with light,
with the light of Heaven itself.

What light this thought throws on my interior
life ! The suffering of darkness ! It is a suffering which
He inflicts upon many of His prisoners of love. "Who
is there among you that feareth the Lord, that hear-
eth the voice of His servant, that hath walked in
darkness and hath no light ? Let him hope in the name
of the Lord and lean upon his God." (Is. L. 10) If only
I can make myself believe that the darkness is per
mitted by Him there will be a ray of light at once
in the darkness because God is there, "Surely God
is in this place." But how can I be sure that the
darkness is permitted by Him ? If I am living the
interior life, if my intention is to please Him in all
that I do, and if, however badly I succeed, I never
willingly take back that intention, then / am pleas
ing God ; and if I am pleasing God, I am one of His
own dear children, just as really as was His Son Who

84 ORTUS CHRISTI

did always the things that pleased Him. If I am one
of His children I know, for He has told me so, that
nothing can happen to me without His knowledge and
His permission, yea His arranging. So if I have to
walk in darkness rather than in light, if desolation
is my spiritual lot and consolation is almost unknown
to me, if a veil hides God's face and my continual cry
is : "Oh, that I might know and find Him" (Job xxin 3),
if prayer seems impossible, if I have a distaste, al
most a repugnance for all spiritual things, if even Our
Lady seems to desert me, if at times I am on the
brink of despair, tempted even to think that my soul
will be lost, if, in short, darkness, thick darkness has
settled down on my soul — what then ? "Let him
hope in the name of the Lord and lean upon his God."
But how can I hope in darkness, how can I lean upon
Someone Who is not there ? By faith, that is by saying
all the time: This darkness is His doing, therefore
it is what He wants for me. "I, the Lord create dark
ness !" That makes all the difference.

Faith, as it always does, lets a streak of light into
the darkness ; God is there and it is only to make the
soul more sure of this that He permits the darkness.
If the soul can find and recognize God in the dark
ness then it knows Him very intimately and this is
what God wants — a love so great that it detects
the Beloved One at once. Does darkness make any
difference to the intercourse of those who love ? They
rather prefer it, so that all may be shut out except
each other. This is what God wants from those
whom He is teaching to be interior — He puts them
into prison and leaves them in the dark. Are they go
ing to be unhappy, to repine and complain, longing
for consolation and all the sweet things with which
God fed them when they hardly knew Him ? Not if
they have faith ; and if their faith is strong, they
will hardly be able to distinguish desolation from
consolation, God's absence from His presence, yea the

THE INTERIOR LIFE (3) 85

very darkness itself from the light ! For is it not
their God who is the cause of all that is happening
to them, and is not that enough for those who love ?
They only want His Will, not their own, and His Will
is to keep them in prison and in the dark and so to
unite them more closely to Himself Who for their
sake faced for nine months the darkness of the womb.
In the terrible moments when despair seems so near
us, let us hold on to the fact that we want to please God
and therefore that we are His chidren and that He
loves us and is arranging everything — this is the
little ray of hope in the darkness, the line of light,
and in it we read the words : "I give them life ever
lasting and they shall not perish for ever ; and no man
shall pluck them out of My Hand." (St. John x. 28).

Colloquy with JESUS, the Light of the world, impris
oned in darkness for me.

Resolution. To lean upon my God in times of dark
ness.

Spiritual Bouquet. "I form the light and create
darkness." (Is. XLV. 7).

THE INTERIOR LIFE (4)

HlDDENNESS.

"Verily. Thou art a hidden God, the God of Israel the Saviour. "
[Is. XLV 15]

ist. Prelude. JESUS hidden in Mary.
2nd. Prelude. Grace so to find Him that I may
live the hidden life.

POINT I. "Tnou ART A HIDDEN GOD."

He was hidden in the womb of His Mother; all
through His life and death on earth, His Divinity was
hidden except to a very few ; in His Eucharistic life

86 ORTUS CHRISTI

He will hide Himself to the end of time in the little
Host. He seemed to love hiding when He was on earth
and when He did reveal Himself, it was something like
a child playing at hide and seek. He hid Himself from
the Samaritan woman till He had heard all her story
and then said suddenly : "I am He (the Messias)
Who am speaking with thee" (St. John. iv. 26). The
blind man whom He cured had not the least idea Who
He was till JESUS, hearing that he had been reviled
and cast out of the Synagogue, went and talked
to him about the Son of God and then said in the
middle of the conversation: ' ' Thou hast both seen Him,
and it is He that talketh with thee" (chap. ix.
37). From Mary Magdalen at the sepulchre He de
liberately hid Himself under the form of a gar
dener that He might have the joy of suddenly sur
prising her with His presence. Perhaps the most
touching story of all is that of the two disciples go
ing to Emmaus ; out of His very love for them, He
blindfolded them and then made them look for Him,
while He put them off the scent by pretending that
He knew nothing about all the things that had been
happening in Jerusalem ; and then when His moment
was come ''their eyes were opened and they knew Him."
(St. Luke xxiv. 31). He treats His children in the
same way still, He constantly hides Himself from
them, leaves them alone to fight and struggle in
desolation, solitude and spiritual darkness, and then
sometimes shows by His sudden presence how near
He has been all the time.

Let me consider two questions :

i. How does He hide Himself ?(i) Behind obstacles
that He makes : suffering, desolation, darkness,
temptation, scruples, failure (spiritual as well as
temporal), uncongenial people and surroundings -
all those many forms of the cross which the true dis
ciple knows so well. Let us remember that He is
hidden in them, it will make all the difference. (2) Be-

THE INTERIOR LIFE (4) 87

hind obstacles that we ourselves make. This is not so
consoling. He has every right to hide Himself from me,
but I have no right to make His coming to me diffi
cult by obstacles that I put in His path, and yet how
often I do it ! Self is the great obstacle. I am taken
up with myself, with my own shortcomings and mis
eries and failures and weaknesses, with my imagin
ation (how it runs away with me, away from Him!)
and my fears, my introspection -- uselessly looking
into myself to see how I am advancing. What are all
these but obstacles which keep God at a distance ?
The soul that attracts Him is the soul that is occupied
with Him, not with self.

2. Why does He hide Himself ? Why does He deliber
ately set up obstacles which prevent the soul from
seeing Him ? Why does a mother hide from her child ?
Is it not for the joy of seeing it look for her and for
the consolation she is going to give it in letting her
self be found ? It is the same with our God Who hides
Himself. He wants to make us look for Him, He
wants to increase our love, our desire and our merit,
He wants to make us strong in faith and confid
ence, while acknowledging our helplessness and de
pendence and nothingness without Him.

POINT II "YouR LIFE is HID WITH CHRIST IN GOD."

Though JESUS was hidden in Mary, He was never
hidden from her. This was (i) because Mary never put
any obstacle between herself and JESUS — her thoughts
were all with Him and never with herself, and (2)
because her faith and love and desire were so strong
that she at once overcame all obstacles, which He in
His love and desire for her merit put in her way as
was the case during the three days' loss. JESUS and
Mary are the models of my interior life. Like Mary
I must try to surmount all obstacles, welcome every
sword that pierces, leave self and seek Him. Like
JESUS in Mary I must strive to lead a hidden life.

88 ORTUS CHRISTI

How is it to be done ? There is only one way — to
have God always before my eyes, and self only there
to be sacrificed. If I make this my rule, it will simpli
fy my life and be the quick solution of many problems.
Why this dryness in prayer ? To bring God to my mind
and to give me an opportunity of sacrificing self with
its love of spiritual consolation and sensible enjoy
ment. The very dryness makes me thirst after God :
"As the hart panteth after the fountains of water,
so my soul panteth after Thee, O God. My soul hath
thirsted after the strong living God ; when shall I
come and appear before the face of God?" (Ps. XLI.
1-3). This is what God wants — to see the soul longing
and thirsting for Him. That is why He puts the obstacle
of dryness between Himself and the soul, and hides
Himself behind it while He watches the soul strug
gling to forget itself and saying : "O my soul why dost
thou disquiet me ? Hope thou in God, for I will still
give praise to Him" (verse 12). This is how the faithful
soul overcomes the obstacles — not by praying to
have them removed, but by a firm faith that God is in
them. So with temptations — why these terrible
temptations, when God could so easily remove them ?
Because He is the Master and He knows what is
best. If the temptations were removed, the soul would
soon be wrapped up in self-complacency and self-
satisfaction. Temptations properly used keep the
soul close to God, it sees God hidden in them and for
getting all about its treacherous self, it turns to Him
Who alone can save it from falling, it keeps God on
ly in view and makes the sacrifice of self. The same
principle holds good for all the many obstacles behind
which God hides. If they are properly used they are
no longer obstacles, but stepping-stones by means
of which we pass to Him. God everywhere and self
nowhere ! God everything and self nothing ! God,
not self, the object of all I do and think and
plan ! And that not because I can feel Him and see

THE INTERIOR LIFE (4) 89

Him and enjoy Him, but because my faith tells me
that though hidden He is there. This was the prin
ciple of Mary's life hidden with her Son. He was the
cause, the direct cause, of all her troubles, of all
the many swords that pierced her most pure heart,
yet never was there a life hidden with Christ as was
Mary's and the reason was that she forgot herself and
saw JESUS only.

"Your life is hid with Christ in God." Are these
words of St. Paul true about me ? Let me read the
whole verse and then I shall know : "For you are dead,
and your life is hid with Christ in God." When self is
dead, then I shall be able to say God only, and till then,
God be thanked, I can hide my miserable self in Him
and tell Him that I want it to be sacrificed though I
so seldom have the courage to do it.

Colloquy with JESUS hidden in Mary.

Resolution. To see my hidden God everywhere
and self nowhere.

Spiritual Bouquet. "Why hidest Thou Thy Face ?
(Job xiii. 24).

THE INTERIOR LIFE (5)
PRAYER.

"Behold I come that I should do Thy Will : O my God, I have
desired it, and Thy law in the midst of my heart."

[Ps. xxxix. 8, 9]

ist. Prelude. Vas spirituale. Vas insigne devotionis.
2nd. Prelude. Grace to "pray without ceasing".
(i.Thess. v. 17)

POINT I. THE SPIRIT OF PRAYER.

Amongst all the lessons that JESUS living in Mary
teaches us, that on prayer must ever hold a foremost

go ORTUS CHRISTI

place. What is Prayer ? "The lifting up of the heart
and mind to God," the Catechism tells us. To love
God, then, and to think about Him is to pray. JESUS
lived in Mary uniquely to do the Will of His Father.
He and the Father were one — one heart, one mind.
He took pleasure in all that concerned His Father :
"Hallowed be Thy Name, Thy Kingdom come, Thy
Will be done on earth as it is in Heaven." He taught
us to pray in the same way, taking our thoughts
away from ourselves to our Father, and when we do
ask for something for ourselves, letting it be just a
short prayer for mercy or for help, acknowledging
our weakness and misery and nothingness, while we
keep our eyes fixed on our Father — He God, I His
creature ; He everything, I nothing. "God be merci
ful to me a sinner," this prayer contains all we need.
O my little JESUS, Who didst think of me in Thy
communion with Thy Father, for Thou didst come
to do His Will, and His Will was that I should be sav
ed, teach me to think of Thee and to love Thee so
much that my life, too, may be one perpetual prayer,
that is, that communion with God may be the at
titude of my soul.

POINT II. MARY'S SPIRIT OF PRAYER.

She was ever holding colloquies with her God
within her, pondering things over in her heart, that
is, talking them over with Him from Whom she had
no secrets and between Whom and her soul she put
no obstacles. Her life was spent with Him; whatever
her duties might be, everything was done with Him,
that is prayer. If duties or conservation demanded all
her attention for a while, did it matter ? No, for He
was there all the same. He, in her, carried on the
blessed converse with His Father ; there was never
any separation between Mary and the Blessed Fruit
of her womb, JESUS. She would come back to Him

THE INTERIOR LIFE (5) 91

with all the more joy, and tell Him what she had been
doing and saying. Oh, blessed life of union between
JESUS and Mary ! Teach me, my Mother, what prayer
is. Thou didst understand it so well. It was prayer
that made thy life interior for thou wast ever commun
ing with Him Who was within thee. "O Mother of
the Word, despise not my words/'

POINT III. "LEARN OF ME."

When we think of JESUS praying for nine months
to His Father, when we think of Mary's nine
months' colloquy with JESUS, we begin to think that
there is something wrong about our methods of pray
er, that they need re-modelling Let us try to under
stand something of what His prayer was. We think
of Him, and quite rightly, as talking over with
His Father all His plans for man's salvation, praying
for each individual thing that would be connect
ed with it through all time. We love to think
that He prayed particularly for each one of us.
But all this was not the essence of His prayer,
if it were, we might well be discouraged and feel that
we could never copy such a model ; our distractions and
fatigues, our ignorance and want of memory, to say
nothing of our times of dryness and distaste for
prayer would make such prayers, except perhaps
now and again in times of consolation, impossible
for us. Am I to turn away sadly then from Mary
this time, saying : It is too hard for me, I cannot
copy thy Son here ? No, rather let me ask what was
the essence of His prayer ? What was it which
lay behind all ? It was the intention. And what was
that ? We have meditated upon it many times :
"Behold 1 come to do Thy Will, 0 my God." The essence
of His prayer was : Thy Will be done and I am here
to do it; Naturally there are many different ways
of doing that Will, and many degrees in the perfec-

92 ORTUS CHRISTI

tion with which it is done; and that is why we are quite
safe in picturing to ourselves JESUS in the womb of His
Mother forgetting no single detail ; or perhaps a tru
er picture would be a union with His Father so per
fect that everything lay open before them both,
and that there was no need to talk about what was
so evident. Now let me apply all this to myself and
I shall find that instead of being discouraging it is
most encouraging, instead of making my prayers hard
er it will make them far easier, What is my intention
in my prayers ? Is it not to please God and to do
His Will ? What does my Morning Offering mean, but
that the prayers, work and sufferings of the day are
all offered to Him ? I form then my intention for the
day, and as long as I do not deliberately take back
that intention, it is there, even if I forget to renew it
each morning. Now let me see how this works out
in practice. I pay a Visit to our Lord, perhaps I am
too tired to think about Him, I may even sleep in His
presence ; perhaps I am so busy that I find it impos
sible to keep away distracting thoughts ; perhaps I
am more taken up with the spiritual book I am read
ing than with Him — the time is up and I go, think
ing, perhaps, what is the good of paying Him a Visit
like that ? There is great good even in that Visit
which all the same might have been so much more
perfect. What was my intention in paying it ? Cer
tainly to please Him. Then I have pleased Him. It
was a pleasure to Him to see me come in and sit with
Him, even though I was occupied with my own con
cerns most of the time. We are too much taken up
with asking how we say our prayers, but the important
question is why do we say them. To go and sit in His
presence, because He is lonely or because I am tir
ed and I would rather sit with Him than with any
one else is prayer, even if I say nothing. What God is
doing for me is of far more importance to my soul
than what I am doing for God ; and all the time

THE INTERIOR LIFE (5) 93

that I am there, whether I am thinking of Him or not,
He is impressing His image on my soul, and this is
true, if I am in the state of grace, not only of my stated
times of prayer, but of all the day long and the night
too. What God wants in our prayers is simplicity. To
help us to understand what simplicity is, let us think
of a little child with its mother. The mother gives
it something to play with or something to do. Is she
very much concerned about what the child is doing or
how it is doing it ! Not at all, that is of no conse
quence; nothing it does can be of any real service
to the mother ; but there is something that concerns
her very much, and that is whether her child loves
her, is happy to be with her, and wants to please her.
We are only children and God is more tender then
the tenderest mother. It makes very little difference
to Him what we are doing while we are with Him
or even how we do it (how can our little services
make any difference to Him!) ; but whether or no
we love Him, whether or no we care to be with Him,
whether or no we want to please Him, these things
make all the difference.

Colloquy with JESUS and Mary about prayer.

Resolution. To try to live more in the spirit of prayer.

Spiritual Bouquet, "Let nothing hinder thee from
praying always" (Ecclus. xvm. 22).

THE INTERIOR LIFE (6)

ZEAL.

"Behold I come that I should do Thy Will. O my God, I have
desired it, and Thy law in the midst of my heart."

[Ps. xxxix. 8, 9]

I st. Prelude JESUS living in and working through Mary.
2nd. Prelude. The grace of zeal according to His
methods.

94 ORTUS CHRIS TI

There is a very close connection between prayer and
zeal ; the more perfect the prayer, the greater neces
sarily will be the zeal. Why ? Because prayer is iden
tifying oneself with the mind and Will of God, and
doing everything with the unique intention of pleas
ing Him. What are the Will and pleasure of God ?
The salvation of the world for which He became in
carnate — The closer we unite ourselves to God in
prayer, the dearer will His intentions be to us. The
best workers are those who pray best, those who
enter most deeply into God's Will and plans. When
we find our zeal flagging, it would be well to ex
amine ourselves on our spirit of prayer.

POINT I. THE ZEAL OF JESUS LIVING IN MARY.

This zeal showed itself at once. No sooner had He
become incarnate than He inspired His Mother to
take a difficult journey into the "hill country" to visit
her cousin Elizabeth. The zeal of JESUS showed
itself first of all, as it naturally would, on His Mother
and filled her spirit with the humility and charity
and forgetfulness of self which were needed for the
journey. It then effected Elizabeth and filled her
with the Holy Ghost, but these were only the over
flowings of His zeal on His way to make what Father
Faber calls His "first convert." The soul of John the
Baptist, His chosen Precursor, was very precious to
Him and as yet it lay unconscious at a distance from
God in darkness and the shadow of death. One of the
first acts of God Incarnate was to deliver that soul
from prison and let it see what great things He had
in store for it. At the sound of the voice of the Mother
with her Child, a change was wrought in that dark
soul ; it was set free from the curse of original sin, it
was flooded with grace, it was brought nigh to God,
the Holy Ghost with all His gifts took possession of
it and as a consequence, it leapt in the womb in joy
and gratitude and adoration.

THE INTERIOR LIFE (6) 95

The voice of Mary directed by her Child had si
multaneously worked two miracles of grace. Eliza
beth heard the salutation first, but it was the leaping
of the Babe in her womb which made her understand
that the Incarnation had taken place, and cry with
a loud voice : "Blessed art thou among women and
blessed is the Fruit of thy womb."

If the zeal of JESUS was so powerful during the
first hours of His life, what must it not have effect
ed during the nine months ! How many souls without
knowing (as St. John the Baptist did) the cause, were
brought nearer to Heaven by the presence of the In
carnate God in the world !

POINT II. MARY'S ZEAL.

We have no need to dwell at any length on the zeal
of her whom JESUS used as His instrument during
the nine months. Mary's was a zeal which compelled
her to spend and be spent in the service of those whom
JESUS loved ; and the secret of its force was the inter
ior life which she lived with her Son — a perfect
union of will and purpose with His.

Let me try to copy my Mother in her interior life
and then I may hope that her Son will use me too as
an instrument of some of His zeal for souls. He must
use someone, for He has made Himself as depend
ent now in the Tabernacle as He was during the time
that He lived in Mary. He has deliberately put Him
self in the position of needing instruments for His
work and He will naturally choose those who are most
imbued with His spirit and who are willing to adopt
His methods. Such an instrument was Mary. She put
no obstacles in His way, because she had no will
apart from His, her zeal was only a reflexion of His.

96 ORTUS CHRIS TI

POINT III. ^LEARN OF ME."

If I am to fashion my zeal after the pattern of the
zeal of JES'US, I must be careful to see that my meth
ods are the same as His. What were His?

(1) Solitude. Such was His solitude that no one but
Mary knew that He was there. He chose solitude not
only during this first stage but during the greater
part of His life on earth, and He chooses it still in
His Eucharist ic life. It must then be a very necessary
accompaniment to zeal. "Learn of Me." What am I
to learn ? That if my zeal is to be efficacious I must
live a hermit's life far from the haunts of men ? Not
necessarily. It would be possible to do this without
finding the solitude that begets zeal ; and it is quite
possible to find the necessary solitude even in the
midst of the world's tumult. To say that I have no
opportunities for doing good because I am in uncon
genial surroundings, or because I am obliged by my cir
cumstances to lead a lonely life or to live where there is
apparently no scope for work for souls is to fail to
understand what zeal is. Why do people shut them
selves up in convents, cries the world, when they might
do so much good outside ? Uniquely because of their
zeal for souls — they have sufficient courage to adopt
Our Lord's methods. If I am one whom He has trust
ed with the trial of loneliness in my life, let me cul
tivate a devotion to Him in His Mother's womb,
and let me take heart and be of good courage.
All the activity in the world that is of any use is of
use because of the prayer that is behind it. Whose
prayers who shall say ? They may be mine if I live
an interior life, for those who live in the retreat of
their own heart with God have a limitless scope for
their zeal.

(2) Silence. Zeal for God and His work does not de
pend then, on words. I need not be troubled because
I am not eloquent, or because I have an impediment

THE INTERIOR LIFE (6) 97

in my speech, or because I never know what to say.
How could such things matter to God, the Omnipo
tent God ! He could alter them in a moment if neces
sary. The Word Himself Who could have spoken so
attractively and with such power was silent for most
of His life. The time He chose for His Incarnation
was "while all things were in quiet silence and the
night was in the midst of her course" (Wisd. xviu. 14);
and He is silent still in the Tabernacle ; He loves si
lence, and the more the soul is interior, the more it
will adopt His method of silence and the more it will
understand what a marvellous help it is to zeal. How
can this be ? Because the silence that we choose to
keep for God means shutting out all else, that we may
talk to Him alone. Could there be a better method
than this for making us zealous for the work so dear
to His Heart ?

(3). Obedience. Think of His obedience in the
womb of His Mother. His very Incarnation was an
act of obedience, He waited for Mary's Fiat. His
waiting for nine months was purely an act of obedience
to the laws of nature, for His Soul and Body were per
fect from the moment of His conception. All the time
that He lived in Mary, He obeyed all whom she obey
ed -- St. Joseph, the Roman Emperor, the people
at Bethlehem. He gave up His own Will to others.

This was His method of being zealous. This is how
He did the work that He had come to do. Can I adopt
this method ? It is not easy. I do so love to follow my
own sweet will especially when I am working for the
souls of others. I feel that no one has a right to dic
tate to me, that my work ought to be spontaneous,
not cramped nor confined nor limited nor any other
adjective that the devil can persuade me to use, if
only he can make me believe that it is a blessed thing
to be independent ! If my zeal for God is to be worth
anything, let me follow the methods of God Incarnate
in the womb of His Mother and be absolutely obed-

98 ORTUS CHRISTI

lent to God, to His Holy Church and to those whom
I ought to obey.

(4). Poverty, "You know the grace of our Lord
JESUS Christ, that being rich, He became poor for
your sakes, that through His poverty you might be
rich" (2 Cor. vm. 9). In His zeal for our wealth, He
made Himself poor, He deliberately adopted pover
ty as one of His methods in His life of zeal. Poverty is
the voluntary laying aside of all that we might have, in
order that our purpose may be single. All can do this
whether rich or poor, for all' have much that they
would rather not lay on one side, and all have self.
Let us think what the Eternal Word was as God,
and then what He was in Mary's womb, and we shall
understand what poverty means. If we are to be
zealous in His service, we must not only understand,
but copy.

(5) Patience. Patience is a twofold grace, that of waiting
and that of suffering, both are a great aid to zeal. The
Eternal Word's zeal for the salvation of men had existed
in all its perfection and all its fulness from all eternity,
yet think how long He waited ! When the conditions
were changed and He had at length become incarn
ate, He still waited patiently for nine months, and
after that He waited for thirty years ! This was
zeal, zeal in its perfection. Is my zeal tempered with pa
tience ? Am I patient with souls, patient with myself,
patient above all when God says : Wait, do nothing ?
JESUS showed His patience in the womb of His
Mother not only by waiting ; but by suffering, as we
have already seen, all the inconveniences that were
incident to His new existence. He doubtless also
forestalled all the sufferings that were in store for
Him and offered them all to His Father. Zeal without
the aid of suffering cannot go far and it was one of
the methods He chose. If I have not courage enough
to choose it, I must, if my zeal is to be at all like His,
be ready for it when He chooses it for me.

THE INTERIOR LIFE (6) 99

It will probably be seen one day that those whose
lives have been lives of suffering, and who have never
been able to do any active work for Him, are those
whose zeal has effected the most for His glory and
His Kingdom.

Those of us who are not entrusted with this wonder
fully blessed gift of suffering, can at any rate offer to
Him for souls all the many little inconveniences and
incommodities of our lives, and so copy to some small
extent the life of JESUS hidden in Mary.

O my little JESUS, help me, at whatever cost to self,
to copy Thee.

Colloquy with JESUS hidden in Mary, asking Him for
grace, so to adopt His methods that He may use me
as an instrument of His zeal.

Resolution. Not to shrink from adopting His
methods.

Spiritual Bouquet. "Every one that hath zeal....
let him follow Me" (i Mace. n. 27)

O SAPIENTIA !

December

"O Wisdom Who earnest forth from the mouth of the Most
High, reaching from end to end mightily, and disposing all
things sweetly, come and teach us the way of prudence !"

[Vide Wisdom vin. i]

ist. Prelude. The Tabernacle of the hidden God.
2nd. Prelude. The grace of prudence.

For seven days before the Vigil of Christmas, the
Church makes use of seven solemn antiphons, common
ly known as the "Seven O's", because they all begin
with "O". One is sung every day at Vespers reminding
us that Our Lord is to come in the evening of the
world's history. They are a sort of cry or invitation

ioo ORTUS CHRISTI

of the Church, addressing her Bridegrom by some
spiritual title and begging Him to come. Before and
after the Magnificat is the time the Church chooses
for these solemn antiphons in order to keep constantly
before our minds the truth that He is coming by
Mary. As the days of Advent draw nearer to their
close, this truth is plainly marked in the Mass. The
Epistle, Gospel and Communion for Ember Wednes
day (in the third week) are all full of Mary ; the Gospel
for Ember Friday gives the account of the Visitation ;
the Mass for the Fourth Sunday of Advent, as if the
Church were loath to leave her out, brings Mary in at
the Offertory and Communion ; and that for the Vigil
of Christmas devotes its Gospel to her. Let us then as
we meditate on these great antiphons look in the di
rection of Mary where our King is as yet hidden, re
membering that it is she who when Christmas comes,
is going to shew unto us the Blessed Fruit of her
womb JESUS.

POINT I. "O WISDOM THAT PROCEEDEST FROM THE

MOUTH OF THE MOST HIGH."

He is the Eternal Wisdom, and He has now become
the Incarnate Wisdom. It is to Him that the Church
is calling to-day. He is the "Wisdom of God" (i. Cor.
I. 24) . and the Source of all wisdom ; and yet as man the
Spirit of God has rested upon Him and filled His
human Soul with the seven-fold gifts, of which Wisdom
is the first. This gift enabled Him as man to know all
mysteries, all God's secret designs and plans, and
to enjoy to the full all His perfections. The subject
is so vast that it seems impossible for me to meditate
about it, but I will take one of the many things
which the Holy Scriptures say about Wisdom, one
which will lead me again to the Sanctuary where I
would be.

"God loveth none but him that dwelleth with Wis
dom" (Wisdom vn. 28). He so loved His poor fallen

O SAPIENTIA! 101

world that He gave His only begotten Son to be
incarnate for it, and now all He asks from His child
ren in return is their love and that they should show
it by dwelling with Him. He came to be Emmanuel,
God with us. He tabernacled among us, and what His
Father asks is that we should not shun Him and live far
away from Him, but that we should dwell with Him. Let
me keep close then in spirit to His blessed Mother, the
Tabernacle where my God is hidden, and let me keep
close in reality to the Tabernacle on the Altar where
He is expecting my confidences as surely as He
expected those of His Mother ; let me treat Him as
my Friend to Whom I can tell everything that con
cerns me — how anxious I am to desire Him to come
and yet how little desire I seem to have. There is
a way of dwelling with Him which is even closer
still : He that eateth My Flesh and drinketh My Blood
abideth in Me and I in him" (St. John vi. 57). This
is the extension of the Incarnation, the way that
Infinite Wisdom devised by which poor fallen man
could nevertheless dwell with Wisdom.

O Eternal Wisdom, help me to make better use
of this Thy most wonderful plan for continuing the
Incarnation ! He was incarnate for me in the womb
of the Blessed Virgin, but He is incarnate for me in
a more special and personal way each time that I
receive Him in Holy Communion. By means of my
Communions and their effects I can dwell always
without any interruption in the tabernacle of the
Most High, for it is of me that Eternal Wisdom speaks
when He says : "My Father will love him, and We will
come to him and will make Our abode with him."
(St. John xiv. 23).

POINT II. "REACHING FROM END TO END MIGHTILY
AND DISPOSING ALL THINGS SWEETLY."

Wisdom "can do all things" (Wisdom vn. 27) and
it is God hidden in the womb of Mary, Who is reaching

102 ORTUS CHRIS TI

from end to end of the earth and ordering the whole

world to be enrolled everyone in his own city. Why

was this ? Because the Roman Emperor wanted to

know the number of the subjects in his vast empire

just to satisfy his ambition ? This is the answer the

world would give, but in this case the children

of Light — the children of the Incarnate Wisdom

know better. The world is being agitated, though it

does not know it, not by the command of any earthly

monarch, but by the King of kings Who is about to

be born and Who must fulfil a certain prophecy as

to His birthplace. The prophet Micaias said of Him :

"His going forth is from the beginning, from the days

of eternity. And thou, Bethlehem Ephrata art a little

one among the thousands of Juda ; out of thee shall

He come" (chap. v. 2) ; and Mary, the mother who

had been destined from all eternity to give birth to

Him Who was "from the days of eternity", was living

quietly at Nazareth making all her preparations for

His birth there. But could not God have devised

means to send Mary to Bethlehem without disturbing

the whole world ? Yes, but He would show to those

who have eyes to see, that wisdom "can do all things,"

that though He is to all appearances helpless, hidden

and dependent, yet it is He and not any other

Who is King of the whole world, and that even now

before His birth He can reach from end to end of

itmightlyand do what He will therein. And so "there

went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that the

whole world should be enrolled everyone in

his own city," and Joseph and Mary went to Beth
lehem and it so happened (as we should say) "that
when they were there, her days were accomplished,
that she should be delivered" (St. Luke n. 1-6). and
the King was born in Bethlehem. Sweetly He had or
dered all things to suit His divine purpose.

O SAPIENTIA! 103

POINT III. "COME AND TEACH US THE WAY OF
PRUDENCE."

Come, my little King, Who art nevertheless the
Eternal Wisdom, come and teach me this heavenly
prudence. I know Thy power and I know Thy gen
tleness. I know, that is to say, that Thou canst do every
thing and that Thou art disposing sweetly everything
in my life; but I want Thee to come and teach me to
put my knowledge into practice. If the whole world
could be set in motion by Thee just in order that
one little desire of Thy Divine Providence might be
fulfilled, shall I not be ready to own that Thou art
indeed the King, that whatever may happen in the
earth, it is the Lord Who reigneth ; and in my own life
when things seem, as they sometimes do, inexplic
able and beyond all human ken, Oh ! come and teach
me that the way of prudence is to lie still like a little
child in its mother's arms, not to try to fathom nor
to understand, but to say : I am in the Arms of the
Eternal Wisdom, Who can do all things, Who
loves me with an infinite love and Who is disposing
all things sweetly, gently, mercifully for my sake.

This is the lesson the Child yet unborn would teach.
His Mother understood, for, as we have seen, one
principle guided the two lives ; but it was not easy
for her to have all her plans disarranged, to hear
that she and her husband must take a long journey
perhaps of two or three days, to know that her Son
could not be born in her own little home so dear to
her with all its hallowed memories, to know that she
could not lay Him in the little cradle that she
had so lovingly prepared for Him nor surround Him
with the little comforts that she had been able to
provide. All this would have been much even for a
rich mother to give up, and Mary was poor and she
knew that she and Joseph would have to take just
what they could get and no more. Yet in Mary's

104 ORTUS CHRISTI

heart there was no anxiety, no murmuring, no hesita
tion, no regret even. Why ? Because the Babe within
her taught her prudence, taught her, that is, that God's
ways are best, that it was He Who was ordering all
things sweetly, and that if her plans were upset, it
simply meant that they did not happen to be God's
plans ; and she willingly gave up hers for His.

O Mary as I kneel before the Tabernacle where
Thy Son as yet lies hidden, present my petitions to
Him. Tell Him that, cost what it may, I do want His
Will to be done, I do want to realize that it is He
Who is ordering all things sweetly for me and that
though the way is often difficult it is His way and
therefore mine — "the way of prudence."

Colloquy with the Incarnate Wisdom.

Resolution "I purposed therefore to take her (WTisdom)
to me to live with me, knowing that she will commun
icate to me of her good things" (Wisdom vm. 9).

Spiritual Bouquet. "O Sapiential ....come and
teach us the way of prudence."

O ADONAI !

December i8th. Feast of the Expectation of Our Lady.

"O Adonai and Leader of the House of Israel ! Who appearedst to
Moses in the fire of the flaming bush and gavest him the law
on Sinai. Come and redeem us by Thy outstretched arm."

[Ex. vi. 3, in 1-9, xx 18-22]

ist. Prelude. The Tabernacle of the Hidden God.
2nd. Prelude. Grace to expect and desire with
Mary.

POINT i. "O VIRGO VIRGINUM !"

We think again to-day of the Mother as well as
of the Son. There is another "O" which is in the Ves
pers of the Feast of the Expectation together with the
"0 Adonai" ! and that is "0 Virgo virginum" ! We

O ADONAI! 105

appeal again then to Mary asking her to show us how
to wait, how to desire, how to love, how to worship.
Let us try to think what her feelings must have been
during these last few days. She is preparing for her
journey, putting together the few necessaries that
they could take, packing up the little "swaddling
clothes," and all the time thinking of nothing but
her Son, Whose Face she is now so soon to see. The
joy of the expectation is so great that it overshadows
all else — she can talk of and think of nothing but
His birth, now so near, and it is to Him that she
talks. All her secrets, all her longings, all her hopes,
all her words of love and joy are for Him. This is the
interior life.

As the great day approaches is my interior life be
coming more intense ? Are all my desires centred on
the little One Who is coming ? Am I continually hold-
ling converse with Him, telling Him all that is in
my heart ? Is He the centre of all my preparations
for Christmas ? Is the real Christmas joy, that is, the
joy caused by the thought of His Coming, so great
that it puts into the shade all difficulties, sorrows,
disappointments and inconveniences ? Mary's troubles
were all caused by JESUS. If it had not been for the
prophecy which said He must be born in Bethlehem
she would not have had to leave her home at such an
inconvenient moment and at such an inclement
season of the year.

When shall I learn that all my troubles come di
rectly from JESUS too, and from my union with Him?
When I do, I shall have peace, the peace which
Mary had and which a really interior life cannot
fail to produce. If I find that my peace is easily
disturbed by passing events, let me examine my
conscience as to my interior life and I shall probably
find the reason.

io6 ORTUS CHRISTI

POINT II. O ADONAI ET Dux !

O Lord and Leader ! "Give ear, O Thou that rul
es! Israel, Thou that leadest Joseph like a sheep" !
("Introit" for Advent II and "Gradual" for Advent III) .
This is the idea in the Church's cry to-day, she is
saluting her General. He it is Who though as yet hid
den is nevertheless leading all. He it is Who slowly
though surely has been leading the world through
many phases till it is ready for its Creator to come
and live upon it. He it is Who has led Joseph like a
sheep — carefully watched over the chosen nation,
because He Himself, when the time came, was to
be born in it. He it is Who led the prophets, careful
ly guiding their hands to write of Him and making
their prophecies more and more lucid as the 'day ap
proached. He it is Who is now leading the whole world
and placing everybody in his own city. He it is Who
is leading Joseph away from Nazareth. He it is
Who is leading His own Mother over every step of
that difficult and tiring journey, letting the joy in His
own Heart overflow into hers; and He is my Leader too.
With such a General, nothing will be overlooked in
my life ; everything will be arranged in wisdom and
love. I need have no fear, no anxiety on that account ;
but such a Leader expects a whole-hearted, unswerving
allegiance from His followers. He expects not only
their obedience, but their loyalty and their love. Does
He demand these by force ? No, for He is a
Leader, not a driver. "He calleth His own sheep by

name and leadeth them He goeth before them

and the sheep follow Him" (St. John x. 3, 4). What
are His methods ? The Incarnation with all its con
sequences. He made Himself a man, not an angel,
because He wanted to attract man to Himself, to
win his love. He identified Himself with man, because
He wanted man to identify himself with Him. The
church, the Holy Eucharist, the Tabernacle, Holy

O ADONAI ! 107

Communion, His Sacred Heart — all these are to
attract men to follow Him. He is there in each of
these going before and leading men on. He is ap
pealing to them now from the womb of His Mother,
suggesting to them that they should choose suffer
ing and humiliation and the hidden life, because
He chose them and loved them and submitted to
them for us ; they were His methods, and His object
in becoming incarnate for us was to win our love to
such an extent that we should take Him as our
Leader and adopt His methods.

Oh ! come, little Leader, come and redeem us. I for
one am determined to follow wheresoever Thou dost
lead, "in what place soever Thou shalt be, my
Lord King, either in death or in life there will Thy
servant be" (2 Kingsx v. 21). "Behold I have given
Him for a Leader" (Is. LV. 4).

POINT III. THE OUTSTRETCHED ARM.

The outstretched arm is a sign (i) of power. The
little One Whom we are expecting, though so winning
and gentle and loving, is nevertheless the Almighty
and All-powerful God. He it is Who said : "I made the
earth and the men and the beasts that are upon the
earth by My great power and by My stretched out
arm" (Jer. xxvu. 5). He it is Who said of those
who would not acknowledge Him as their King :
"I will Myself fight against you with an outstretched
hand and with a strong arm" (chap. xxi. 5). ,,He it
is Who "with a strong hand and a stretched-out arm"
delivered His people of old out of the land of Egypt"
(Deut. xxvi. 8). He it is Who gave the law on Sinai,
when "the thunders began to be heard and lightning
to flash and a very thick cloud to cover the mount,
and the noise of the trumpet sounded exceeding

loud and the people feared." Why? Because

"the Lord came down upon Mount Sinai in the very

io8 ORTUS CHRIS TI

top of the mount" (Ex. xix. 16, 20). He came then
in power to give with His own outstretched arm His
commandments to His people ; but now He is coming
in the silence of the night to win them by His love and
no one will be afraid of a little Child.

Oh ! come, and redeem us by Thy stretched out arm.
Come in all Thy might to save us from our sins — our
past sins and the evil habits they have left, our pre
sent attachment to venial sins which we are ashamed
of, but are obliged to confess lingers still ; come and
deliver us from our countless imperfections : "Lord if
Thou wilt, Thou canst make me clean" (St. Matt, vm 2.)

The outstretched arm is also a sign (2) of pity, of
of yearning, of longing. A mother stretches out her
arms to receive her babe taking its first tottering
steps, to welcome her prodigal, to protect those in
danger, to help in every time of need.

When God was longing to deliver His people of
old from the cruel bondage in . Egypt, He attract
ed Moses' attention by a burning bush, so that He
could tell him of His yearnings towards His people.
Moses saw that the bush was on fire and was not burnt
and he said : "I will go and see why the bush is not
burnt" (Ex. m. 2.3). "That bush hid two mysteries
which were beyond Moses' power of reason, but God
revealed them later to His Saints. The fire that burned
was the Divinity and the bush which was impregnat
ed by the fire and yet not burnt was the Sacred
Humanity. Again, the bush was a figure of Mary who
though she received the God-Man into her sacred
womb yet remained a virgin — the bush held the
flame of fire which lighted the whole world and yet
remained intact. Mgses though he did not see the things
which we see, nevertheless saw a "great sight" and
"when the Lord saw that he went forward to see, He
called to him out of the midst of the bush" and told
him not to come too near and to take off his shoes for
the ground was holy. He then told him Who He was

O ADONAI! 109

and why He had come : "I have seen the afflictions
of My people I have heard their cry and know
ing their sorrow, I am come down to deliver them"
(verses 7, 8). It was the Heart of God yearning for His
children. His Hands were stretched out in pity and
love, but His hour was not yet. He waited and "when
the fulness of the time was come, God sent His Son"
(Gal. iv. 4) ; and now we are kneeling before the
Sanctuary wherein He has still a few days to wait ;
we have turned aside to see the "great sight," we
know that we are treading on holy ground. " Rubum
quern viderat Moyses incombustum conservatam agnov-
imus tuam laudabilem virginitatem ; Dei genitrix in
tercede pro nobis." In the bush which Moses saw un-
consumed, we acknowledge thy admirable virginity
preserved : intercede for us, O Mother of God.
(Little Office. B. V. M. — A Christmas antiphon).

As we keep near to the Burning Bush we wonder
more and more at the mystery ; we ask why, but we
never receive a satisfying answer, for who can fathom
the mystery of the love of God ? The Word is silent
yet. Could He speak, we should hear the same words
as Moses heard, for the Heart of God changes not :

"I have seen the afflictions of My people I am

come down to deliver them." How intense were His
yearnings ! How great was His expectation ! Let me
try to make Him some little return by my desires
and my yearnings for Him ! Oh ! come, little Saviour,
come and redeem us by Thy outstretched Arm !

Colloquy with Him Who is so soon to come.

Resolution. To wait with His Mother to-day asking
her to give me some of her desire.

Spiritual Bouquet. "A little Child shall lead them"
(Is. xi. 6).

O RADIX JESSE !

December igth.

"O Root of Jesse! Who standest as the ensign of the people,
before Whom Kings shall keep silence and unto Whom the
nations shall make their supplication, come and set us free,
tarry now no longer." [Vide Is. xi. 10 and Apoc. xxii, 16]

ist. Prelude. The Tree of Jesse so often seen carved
on cathedral porches and painted on windows, and
in Missals.

2nd. Prelude. Grace to rally under the Standard of
the Tree of Jesse.

POINT I. THE ROOT OF JESSE.

''There shall come forth a Rod out of the Root of
Jesse, and a Flower shall rise up out of his Root; and
the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him : the Spi
rit of Wisdom and of Understanding, the Spirit
of Counsel and of Fortitude, the Spirit of Knowledge
and of Godliness ; and He shall be filled with the
Spirit of the Fear of the Lord" (Is. xi. 1-3) St. Jerome
says that the Branch is Our Lady and the Flower her
Son, Who says of Himself: "I am the Flower of the
field and the Lily of the valleys" (Cant. 11. i) ; and a
responsory dating from the middle ages says : "R.
The Root of Jesse gave out a Branch : and the
Branch a Flower ; and on the Flower resteth the Holy
Spirit. V. The Virgin Mother of God is the Branch
her Son is the Flower, and on the Flower resteth the
Holy Spirit."

So once again, if we would find the Flower we must
first find the Branch which bears it. The Flower is still
in bud but presently it will open, and its beauty and

O RADIX JESSE! in

fragrance will fill the whole earth and attract all men
to it : "What manner of one is thy Beloved of the
beloved, O thou most beautiful among women ?"
"My Beloved is white and ruddy, chosen out of thou
sands" (Cant. v. Q, 10). I can understand that thy beau
tiful Lily is white, for I know that such is His
purity that even the heavens are not pure in His
sight, but why is His apparel red ? (Is. LXIII. 2).
Because He is "clothed with a garment sprinkled with
blood: and His name is called: The Word of God"
(Apoc. xix. 13). Even now, before His delicate petals
are unfolded, they are marked with the Cross.

O Root of Jesse, can ever tree compare with thine
— one of whose branches was found worthy to bear
a Flower so fair ! There are further beauties as we
gaze — a heavenly Dew is resting on the Flower, it
is the Holy Spirit Himself, Who at that blest moment
when He overshadowed the Branch poured out all
His choicest gifts upon the Flower. As God, the seven
fold gifts were His from all eternity, and directly the
Humanity was united to the Eternal Word, the div
ine perfections belonged to it, so that as man "He
was made unto us the Wisdom of God" and could under
stand all mysteries. By the gift of Understanding He
knew and entered into all God's plans for the Redemp
tion of the world. The gift of Counsel showed Him
exactly what was the Will of His Father which He
had come to do. The gift of Fortitude gave Him the
strength to carry out His Father's Will and to say
ever : Not My Will but Thine be done. His Knowledge
was so profound that He preferred poverty to riches,
and to be despised rather than to be honoured ; He
knew as Man the true worth of the thing which as
God He had created. The gift of Piety established that
tender relationship between Him and His Father
which He wished us to have when He taught us to say:
Our Father ; it included also His perfect relationship
with His Mother and St. Joseph. The gift of Fear

H2 ORTUS CHRISTI

gave Him as Man a reverence and respect for the
majesty of God. (Vide. Heb. v. 7).

It was thus that the heavenly Dew rested on the
heavenly Flower.

O my JESUS, come and tarry no longer ! I know that
Thou hadst no need of any of these gifts; they rested
on Thee because Thou art my Model and Thou wouldst
show me how to use them.

POINT II. THE ENSIGN OF THE PEOPLE.

It is the Tree of Jesse which stands as an ensign,
about which Our Lord says : "I am the Root and Stock
of David" (Apoc. xxii. 16). He then is the Standard-
bearer and the Standard is His Cross. "Bearing His
own Cross He went forth" (St. John xix. 17). He is
the "sign which shall be contradicted" by His enemies
(St. Luke ii. 34), but when the sign of the Son of Man
shall appear in the Heavens (St. Matt. xxiv. 30) it
will bring joy and hope to the hearts of all those who
love His Coming (2 Tim iv. 8). "My beloved is white
and ruddy, chosen out of thousands," or according to
another translation : "My beloved is white and ruddy
a Standard bearer" (Cant. v. loA.V. Margin), chosen
for His strength as well as for His beauty. To Him
shall the nations make supplication, for He said :
"I, if I be lifted up from the earth will draw all
things to Myself" (St. John XII.32).

There are only two standards in the world — that
of JESUS Christ and that of the devil. Both leaders want
me to enlist ; both are trying to win me ; but by
what different means ! The devil strives to entrap me
with the silken threads of sin which seem so insigni
ficant and harmless, but which if I allow myself to
be trapped by them, he will twine into a thick rope and
hold me fast ; while JESUS draws me to Himself with
the cords of love. Both are infinitely more powerful
than I am, and yet all depends on me, that is, on my will.

O RADIX JESSE 113

The cords of love are far stronger than the cords of
hate, so I need not be afraid of the devil's capturing
me against my will; but on the other hand JESUS
will not draw me with the cords of love against my
will. "// thou wilt,. . . . come," is His method. There
are chains, there is a cross, but all is love. A little Child
holds the Standard, a little Child leads, and all He asks
is that we should follow Him and do as He does.

Come, then, little JESUS, set up Thy Royal Stan
dard, come, tarry no longer. I am longing to show Thee
that I am not going to be a soldier in name only ;
longing to show Thee that I understand that a sol
dier who has pledged himself to fight under Thy Stan
dard must adopt Thy methods, that if I would be
a soldier on whom Thou canst count. I must be really
mortified, really poor, really ready to give up my own
will and my own methods, really anxious to have humili
ations because I know that there is no other way of
attaining the beautiful virtue of humility. I am long
ing to show Thee that I understand that those who
march under Thy Standard must be marked by the
Cross. Oh ! come, and set me free from all that keeps me
from offering myself whole-heartedly for Thy service.
Come and cut all the many little cords that still bind
me to the service of self. Thy Mother wants Thee, the
Angels are longing to look upon Thy Face, the world
wants Thee though it knows it not, and I am longing
to want Thee too. Oh ! teach me to want Thee more.

Colloquy with the Branch and the Flower.

Resolution. To examine myself to-day as to my at
tachments.

Spiritual Bouquet. "Come and set us free, tarry now
no longer."

0 CLAVIS DAVID !

December 2oth.

"O Key of David and Sceptre of the House of Israel ! Who
openest and no man shutteth ; Who shuttest and no man
openeth ; come and bring forth from his prison-house the
captive sitting in darkness and in the shadow of death."
[Isaias xxn, 22. Apoc. in, 7. Gen. XLIX 10. Heb. i, 8]

ist. Prelude. The little King with the Key and the
Sceptre.

2nd. Prelude. Grace to respond to the Key and the
Sceptre.

POINT I. THE KEY OF DAVID

"I will lay the Key of the House of David upon
His shoulder" (Is. xxn.22). "To the Angel of theChurch
of Philadelphia write : These things saith the Holy
One and the True One, He that hath the Key of David,
He that openeth and no man shutteth, shutteth and
no man openeth : I know thy works. Behold I have
given before thee a door opened which no man can
shut, because thou hast a lit tie strength." (Apoc, in. 7.8)

The Babe unborn has already had the Key laid
upon His Shoulder. He already has authority. Soon,
very soon now, He will come to use it. How will He
use this Key and what is it ? It is the Key of authority
but it is also the Key of love, (i) He is coming to unlock
the gates which hold the human race fast in ignorance
and sin, to be its Redeemer, to give it "a door opened
which no man can shut," to give it a chance if it will
of walking out of its prison-house into the liberty
wherewith Christ alone can make it free (Gal iv, 31).
(2) He is coming to put His golden Key of love into
the hearts of men, to open those doors which are
shut against Him and which none but He can open,

O CLAVIS DAVID! 115

for none but He can give grace. Each little child
whose heart is filled with grace at its Baptism is
only able to receive it because the little Child with
the golden Key has opened its heart. ''Thou hast open
ed the Kingdom of Heaven to all believer.-." Come,
then, O Key of David, come and begin Thy blessed
work on earth. Thou hast already put Thy magic
Key into the heart of St. John the Baptist and doubt
less of many another ; come and tarry not, come and
f oundThyChurch and pass on the wondrous power of the
keysto those with whom Thou wilt leave Thy authority.
(3) He is coming to open with His Key of love His own
most Sacred Heart. None but He can open that
vast treasure-house of love, and none but He can
shut it. It will be there for a refuge for all His children
in all time — a standing memorial of His love. What
does He ask in return ? Only that when we hear Him
put His golden Key into our hearts, there may be a
response : "My Beloved put His Hand through the
key-hole and my heart was moved at His touch.
I arose up to open to my Beloved" (Cant. v. 4. 5). The
rising up to let Him in is our part, He puts in His Key
and unlocks, that is, He removes all obstacles by His
grace, but we must respond to that grace for though
He has unlocked the door He will not force an entrance.
"Behold I stand at the door and knock/' and then He
waits, waits for our correspondence and for our love.
"My son, give Me thy heart," He wants it, He has
used His Key of love to obtain it, but He will not
take it, it must be a free gift of love.

At the last great Advent the door of His mercy
will be shut against all those who have refused Him an
entrance into their hearts, and when He shuts, no
man can open. "Lord, Lord, open to us," and the
answer will come through the eternally locked door :
"I never knew you, depart from Me."

Oh! come, Divine little One, come with Thy
Key while yet there is time and unlock the many

n6 ORTUS CHRISTI

hearts which still find no place for Thee, no time to
attend to Thee waiting so patiently, no desire to
give Thee an invitation this Christmas; and give
them grace to respond.

POINT II. THE SCEPTRE OF THE HOUSE OF ISRAEL.

The little One Who is to come not only has a Key
on His Shoulder, but a Sceptre in His Hand. The
word used for Sceptre (shebet) in the Hebrew has four
distinct meanings and we can apply them all to our
Lord and Savionr. JESUS Christ. It is :

(i) a rod of command, a sign of royalty (Esther
iv. ii, Ps. XLIV. 7) ;

(2) a rod of iron, a rod of correction (Ps. n. 9. Prov.
xxn, 15.) ;

(3) the shepherd's rod or wand (Lev. xxvu. 32);

(4) the flail which separates the grain from the
chaff (Is. xxvin. 27)'.

(i) A sign of royalty. He is my King — how much
that says to me ! He has authority over me and a
right to command me, a right to my service from
every point of view ; but He will not exact it
from me. He stretches out His Sceptre of mercy in
token of clemency. He wants my service, but He wants
it to be the outcome of my love and so He uses His
Sceptre to attract me. He brings Himself down to
my level, He calls Himself my Brother, my Friend. He
tells me that if I will throw in my lot with Him and
do as He does, one day I shall share His Kingdom and
reign with Him. Such is my King and such is the
meaning of His Sceptre. "Where is He that is born
King of the Jews ?" Thou art as yet hidden, O my little
King, but Thou wilt be born a king for "Thy throne,
0 God, is for ever and ever, a sceptre of justice is
the sceptre of Thy Kingdom" (Heb. 1-8). What is my
response going to be to that Sceptre stretched out once
again ? That of a loyal, whole-hearted, loving subject

O CLAVIS DAVID ! 117

or that of one who is still hesitating between the
service of self and the service of the King ?

(2) A rod of correction. For His enemies it is a "rod
of iron," but for His children a rod of love, for what
son is there whom the father doth not correct ? ' 'Whom
the Lord loveth He chastiseth ; and He scourgeth
every son whom He receiveth. Persevere under dis
cipline. God dealeth with you as with His sons."
(Heb. xii. 6. 7). We are not to "faint" nor "be weary"
nor "neglect the discipline," not to be inclined to give
all up and choose an easier path ; no, but to regard
the discipline as a "consolation," (verse 5) a proof of
love, a sign that we are really the children with
whom He does what He likes, instructing us accord
ing to His own pleasure (verse 10).

Oh ! my little King, come with Thy rod of correction,
come and make me a saint and do not spare me in
the making. He that spareth the rod spoileth the child.
I do not want to be a spoilt child, but a child on whom
Thou canst count, that is, a child to whom Thou canst
say what Thou wilt and whom Thou canst criticize
as thou wilt, by the mouth of whom Thou wilt, a
child whom Thou dost not consider because Thou art
sure of its love, sure, that is, that it loves Thee and
Thy ways better than self and its ways.

(3) A shepherd's staff or crook. As it had been pro
phesied of Him that He should be a king, so it had also
been prophesied that He should be a shepherd : "I
will save My flock .... and I will set up one Shepherd
over them and He shall feed them and He shall be their
Shepherd" (Ezech. xxxiv. 22, 23, and xxxvu. 24).
He shall feed His flock like a shepherd, He shall gath
er together the lambs with His arms, and shall
take them up in His bosom, and He Himself shall
carry them that are with young" (Is. XL. u). "I am
the Good Shepherd ;" even now while He is yet in
the womb of His Mother He is counting His sheep,
calling them out, knowing each one by name, thinking

n8 ORTUS CHRISTI

of the great fold which He is going to make, of the
one shepherd to whom He will entrust the great
work of feeding His sheep, of the "other sheep"
whom He "must bring" into the fold sooner or later.
Even now He is planning to lay down His life for His
sheep "that they may have life and have it more
abundantly."

(4) The flail which separates the chaff from the
good grain, the tribulum which causes "great trib
ulation" on earth's threshing floor, but which is
used only for the good of the grain and ensures its
being gathered into the heavenly garners. Oh ! my
little King, Who art coming to bring peace make me
understand that I shall never have peace till I am ful
ly persuaded that all my tribulation, all my troubles,
trials and afflictions are directly caused by Thee,
that it is Thou Thyself and no other Who dost use
the threshing instruments to separate me from all
that is not pleasing to Thee.

Come then, and with Thy Key of love unlock
the prison-house and bring forth the captive sitting
in darkness and then with Thy Sceptre rule him,
correct him, guide him and afflict him.

Colloquy with Him Who has the Key and the Sceptre.

Resolution. To rise up and open to my Beloved

Spiritual Bouquet. O Clavis David!

O OKI ENS!

December 2ist. Feast of St. Thomas.

"O Orient ! (Dawn of the East, Rising Sun. Dayspring) Splend
our of the Light Eternal and Sun of Justice, come and enlighten
them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death."

[Is. ix 2, Zach. in. 8, vi. 12. Mai. iv 2, St. Luke I, 78]

ist. Prelude. "The light of the morning when the
sun riseth" (2. Kings xxm. 4).

2nd. Prelude. Grace to tread always the "Way of
Peace."

O ORIENS! 119

POINT I. THE ORIENT.

"Behold I will bring my Servant the Orient."
(Zach.ni. 8) Now God has kept His promise for Zach-
ary has already sung: "The Orient from on high has
visited us." But where is He, this Servant of God
Who has come to do His Will, this Man Who is also
God, this Splendour of the Light Eternal and Sun of
Justice? As yet He is hiding His light, but "fear not
for on the fifth day Our Lord will come unto you"
(Antiphon of the Benedictus for to-day) . He will come
and He will not tarry ; but when He comes He will
still hide His light under the swaddling clothes and
the helplessness and dependence of a little babe.
Why is this. O Orient ? Thou art the Light Eternal
and the Sun of Justice and yet Thy rising seems to
make so little difference in the world. Hardly any
know that Thou hast risen. My child, it is true that
I am the Light of the world, true that I am the bright
and morning Star, but the light can only reach the
world by faith. Those who have faith like Zachary and
his wife and infant son know that I have visited them,
not because they have seen me, but by faith. It is
the same with my own sweet Mother : "Blessed art
thou that hast believed" (St. Luke 1.45). It will be
the same when I am born in a few days' time. Most
will see nothing beyond a babe in swaddling clothes,
but to a chosen few who have the gift of faith the
Sun of Justice will have risen, the Star will have
appeared, their cry will be : "Behold a Man," even the
Man-God, "the Orient is His name." It will be the
same all through My life on earth, only the few will
recognize the Light of the world ; most will not come
to Me, but will prefer darkness rather than light.
It will be the same with My sacramental life in the
Church. I shall be there, but only the eye of faith
will detect Me. The Sun of Justice has risen with

120 ORTUS CHRISTI

health in His Wings, but only very gradually will
He make Himself felt in a world that is sitting in
darkness and in the shadow of death.

And why, O Orient, Splendour of the Light Eternal,
why dost Thou not cast Thy bright beams over the
whole world at once that all may know and recognize
Thee as the Day spring which has risen ?

Because, My child, I love faith and it is by faith that
I intend men to know Me. I do enlighten ''every man
that cometh into this world'' (St. John I. q), that is
I give to each sufficient light to save his soul, to
one more, to another less, and I shall judge according
to the light I have given ; but what I want from all
is co-operation, I want their faith, I want them to
believe, not because they can see and understand, but
because by means of My grace in their hearts and es
pecially by means of the revelation given to My
Church I enlighten their minds. Yes, the Sun has
risen with health in His Wings, and gradually He
will increase in strength till the "uttermost parts of
the earth" respond to His light. It is a work of time
just as it is a work of time in each individual soul.
The soul does not see clearly as soon as the light
enters ; there is a period when men seem like trees
walking (St. Mark vm. 24) ; but if only it will respond
and hold on by faith, the time will come when it will
see all things clearly.

O Orient, come and enlighten those that sit in dark
ness and in the shadow of death with the light of faith.
It is faith that is needed on the earth, it is faith that
is needed in each individual soul. It is faith that
I need, more faith, more confidence in Thy dealings.
Many shadows are still cast on my soul by sin — even
a wilful imperfection casts a shadow. Oh What
need I have of Thee, O Orient from on high, to come
and visit me and chase away the shadows of the
night ! "Till the day break and the shadows retire"
(Cant. 11.17 IV-6)-

O OKI ENS! 121

POINT II. ST. THOMAS.

It is a coincidence, if not something more, that
puts the antiphon 0 Oriensf on the same day as the
Feast of St. Thomas. It was on account of St. Thomas'
doubt that the great principle was given to the Church :
"Blessed are they that have not seen and yet have
believed." It is on account of St. Thomas' faith that
countless Indulgences are granted every day to the
faithful who make use of his words : "My Lord and
my God" when their sight shows them nothing but
a little Host elevated by a priest. It was St. Thomas'
zeal which made him go to the Indies and proclaim
that the Orient had visited His people and that God had
become incarnate for men. "Thou didst make all the
Indies shine with much light" (Hymn of the Greek
Church to St. Thomas), and that light was the light
of faith in Him Whom they had not seen. It is St.
Thomas who comes to-day to revive our flagging faith,
to introduce us to the Babe of Bethlehem and tell us
that He is indeed the Orient though He is hiding His
light, to warn us to give no heed to temptations against
the faith, to tell us that when we are contemplating the
humility and nothingness of our God and the temptation
comes to us, as it did to him to say : Unless I see
for myself, "I will not believe," to remember the words
of the Master : "Blessed are they that have not seen
and yet have believed."

O blessed Saint Thomas ! who art now in the land
of light and vision, intercede for us that we may be
as little children, believing all we are told and quietly
waiting till the day dawn and the Orient arises in
all His majesty and strength, preparing as a giant to
run His course, but for the moment hiding everything
under the form of a helpless babe. We do not ask
for sight but for the light which will lead us to Him,
the light of faith, so that when we see Him wrapped
in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger we may cry
out with you : "My Lord and My God."

122 ORTUS CHRISTI

POINT III. THE WAY OF PEACE.

The Orient visited us not only "to enlighten them
that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death/'
but also "to direct our feet into the way of peace"
(St. Luke i. 79) And what is the way of peace but the
way of faith, which He is coming to light up ? Nothing
can bring peace to this dark and sin-stricken world
but faith. The Sun of Justice is rising with health in
His Wings and that health is faith. It is the remedy
for all ills. Men try every other remedy but they
leave out God and His faith and the result is that
the world remains in chaos. The Light has risen, the
Orient has visited us, but men shut their eyes to the
light and prefer the darkness, because their deeds are
evil.

The Way of Peace is made by the Prince of Peace,
it is the Highway to the Heaven of Peace. Am I on
it ? Yes, for I am one of "the household of faith" and
can never thank Him sufficiently for having directed
my feet into the City of Peace. But this is not all.
Many people, even those of the "household of faith"
have very little real peace in their lives. They spend
their time in complaints, regrets, criticisms, anxieties.
Is this what the King of Peace intends ? Oh no ! He
is ever there waiting to direct their feet towards the
"green pastures" and "the still waters", but the Way
of Peace is the way of faith, of trust and confidence.
Until I can really trust Him, the peaceful pastures
can never be mine, I can never lie down in them and
rest. I am His sheep, but I do not wholly trust my
Shepherd. If I did, I should believe that whatever He
chose and arranged for me was the best ; I could not
complain of what He had planned for me, however
hard it might be. I could not criticize His arrangements
and want to make my own. May my trust be so ab
solute this Christmas that it is apparent to everyone
that I possess the peace which the Babe of Betlehem

O REX GENTIUM ! 123

comes to bring. O Orient come once more and direct
my feet into the way of peace.

Colloquy with the Orient.

Resolution. "Although He should kill me. I will trust
in Him". (Job. xm. 15)

Spiritual Bouquet. 0 Oriens !

O REX GENTIUM!

December 22nd.

"O King of nations and their desired One and the Corner-stone
that makest both one, come and save man whom Thou didst
form out of slime !"

[Gen.xLix. 10. Agg. n. 8. Isaias xxvui. 16. Gen. n. 7]

ist. Prelude. Mary and Joseph on the road to Bethle
hem. "Behold thy King will come to thee..He is
poor and riding upon an ass." (Zach. ix. 9)
2nd. Prelude. Grace to welcome my King.

POINT I. "THE DESIRED OF ALL NATIONS SHALL COME."

King of nations He has always been, for He created
them; in Him they live and move and are. (Acts. xvn. 2)
He has been in His earth ever since He created it,
governing it, sustaining and preserving the life which
He gave, co-operating always with His creatures.
We must not think of Him as creating the world and
then leaving it to do the best it could till the time came
for Him to be incarnate. That is a false idea. His de
lights were always to be with the children of men and
though the Orient did not begin to dawn till the time
of the Incarnation, the Light had been in the world
all along ; the Sun of Justice had existed from all
eternity. "He was in the world and the world was made
by Him and the world knew Him not." (St. John 1. 10)
But though it knew Him not, the world had enough

124 ORTUS CHRISTI

light to desire Him. Ever since God at the time of
man's fall had made His great promise concerning
the Woman and her Seed, He that was to come had
been to the nations "their desired One," That promise
had been carefully cherished, handed on from father
to son till Moses came and recorded it in the book of
Genesis ; and though of necessity one nation had to
be selected to which the Woman and her Seed were
to belong, yet the promise was given to all nations and
all claimed their share in it. The chosen nation through
whom all the others were to be blessed was Abraham's.
Through him and his seed the great promise was to
be fulfilled (Gen. xii. 3) The time was hinted at in the
patriarch Jacob's blessing to Juda : "The sceptre
shall not be taken away from Juda, nor a ruler from
his thigh, till He come that is to be sent and He shall
be the expectation of nations" (Gen. XLIX. 10). The
house or family which was to have the joy of realizing
the promise was David's ; the place where the Woman
was to bring forth her Seed was Bethlehem. Here
"she that travaileth shall bring forth" and here
"shall He come. . that is to be the Ruler in Israel"
(Mich. v. 2.3). Each subsequent prophecy or promise
developed and enlarged the original one given in
Eden, but in that one the nations had all that they
needed upon which to build up their hopes and
nourish their desires — the Woman and her Seed, the
"Child with His Mother" — and though the promise
belonged to the chosen nation (Rom. 1x4), the first
great promise had been handed down through the other
nations and they knew enough to make them desire,
enough to find the Light if they sought it as did
the Wise Kings of the East.

O King of nations, as I look back through the ages
and see the Child and His Mother so clearly set forth
iri promise and prophecy, in type and example,
when I think of Thy plans for the redemption of the
world, made from all eternity and gradually unfolding

O REX GENTIUM! 125

as the fulness of time approached, when I think of
the nations all desiring Thy coming, when I think
of the intense desire of Thy loving Heart, there
is one thing that seems to jar and to be out of harmony
with the rest, and that is the lamentable want of
desire in my own heart ! The time is very short now,
the Child with His Mother are already on the way
to Bethlehem. Oh ! Let me multiply my Acts of Desire
that my little King when He comes may be indeed my
"desired One" too. "I sat down under His shadow,
Whom I desired." (Cant. 11.3)

POINT II. THE CORNER-STONE THAT MAKETH
BOTH ONE.

"Behold I will lay a stone in the foundations of
Sion, a tried stone, a corner-stone, a precious stone,
founded in the foundations" (Isaias xxvm.i6), "the
stone which the builders rejected" (Ps.CXVll.22).

This is one of the promises confided to the chosen
nation. Our Blessed Lord claims it as applying to
Himself (St. Matt. xxi. 42. St. Luke xx. 17), and
St. Peter and St. Paul both speak of it as if it were
well known. (Acts. iv. n. I Peter n 6-8. Rom. ix.33,
Eph. n. 20).

He is the Corner-stone Who is coming to make both
one (Eph. n. 14), both the Jews to whom belongs the
promise (Rom. ix. 4) and the Gentiles who are "co
partners of His promise" (Eph.ni. 6). He is coming to
preach peace to them that are far off as well as to
them that are nigh, coming to make "the strangers
and foreigners" feel that they are "fellow-citizens
with the saints and the domestics of God," coming
to weld all together into one great building of which
He Himself is to be the chief Corner-stone, binding
together the two walls (Jews and Gentiles), supporting
each stone and keeping each in its place, a holy tem
ple in the Lord, "a habitation of God in the spirit."

126 ORTUS CHRISTI

Such is the picture St. Paul draws for us (Eph. n\
and such is the picture which the antiphon for to-day
brings before our minds. "All one in Christ JESUS."
He is the King of all nations, the Desired of all na
tions, the Corner-stone of the whole building ; with
Him there is neither Jew nor Gentile (Gal. in. 28) .

Let me tell Him even now before He comes how I
long to share in the great work so dear to His Sacred
Heart, let me offer myself to co-operate with Him in
His designs for the human race which He loves so well.
Let me be ready to labour, to suffer, to pray, to
spend and be spent, if only I may thus bring Him a
few stones for His Holy Temple. I was "sometime
afar off" but now have been "made nigh by the Blood
of Christ" (Eph. 11.13). "What shall I render?" (Ps.
cxv. 12).

POINT III. COME AND SAVE MAN WHOM THOU DIDST

FORM OUT OF THE DUST.

"Their desired One" Who has never been far from
the hearts of His children, knows the need of the na
tions. He Who formed man out of the dust knows his
need of a Saviour. What are the desires of the nations
compared with His desire ? From all eternity He has
desired the time to come when by taking the na
ture of man He could fulfil their desires and be to
them both a King and a Saviour. Very soon now will
the Angels be telling the glad tidings to man : To you
is born the Saviour. Very soon will the heavenly
choirs be singing the praises of the new-born King,
and the question will be asked even by distant na
tions : "Where is He that is born King ?"

Oh! come, little King, come and fulfil the desires of
all hearts. Thou hast given them and Thou also must
satisfy them. Art Thou really the one desire of my heart,
around which all my hopes centre ? If Thou wert
not there, I know that life would be nothing but a

O EMMANUEL! 127

blank. Come and create a greater desire than ever
after the perfection Thou wouldst have, and then
show me how to follow after it. "In what place soever
Thou shalt be, my Lord King. . . .there will Thy ser
vant be" (2 Kings xv. 21). To-day then I will journey
with Thy blessed Mother, for surely the closer I keep
to her, the greater must be my desires.

Colloquy with "the desired One".

Resolution. Grace to desire Him more ardently.

Spiritual Bouquet. O Rex Gentium !

O EMMANUEL!

December 23rd.

"O Emmanuel, our King and Lawgiver, the Expectation and

Saviour of the nations ! Come and save us, O Lord our God."

[Is. vn, 14, viii, 8, xxxin, 22, St Jas. iv, 12]

1st. Prelude. Mary and Joseph in the temple at
Jerusalem.

2nd. Prelude. Grace to worship with them.

POINT I. EMMANUEL, GOD WITH us.

On the way from Nazareth to Bethlehem lies Jeru
salem and we may be quite sure that a happy event for
Mary and Joseph on this long and tiring journey now
nearing its end would be their visit to the Temple,
near which Mary, and probably Joseph too, had spent
most of her life. We may think, then, of Mary to-day
taking her Son into His own Temple. We may think
of the joy of the Angels as they lifted high the gates
to let the hidden King come in. In the Holy of
Holies of Solomon's Temple was the Ark of the Co
venant, inside which were the Tables of God's law and
upon which was manifested the presence of the All-
Holy. But here kneeling in the Temple, in the women's

128 ORTUS CHRIS TI

court afar off, was the real Ark of the Covenant of
which the other was only a type, hiding within her
chaste womb the new Lawgiver Whose Presence was
known only to the Angels who were worshipping round
His Shrine, and to Mary and Joseph the only earthly
worshippers in the Temple that day who understood.

Here was the Virgin with her Son, the prophecy
was fulfilled - - God with us. "His name shall be
called Emmanuel."

Yet Mary and Joseph were not the only worshippers
in the Temple that day — there was a Human Soul
worshipping God as He had never been worshipped
before. The Heart of Jesus now so near the end of the
first stage of Its existence on earth was offering to
God all Its homage and all Its love, offering to Him all
the work that had been done during the nine months
passed in the holy "Ark of the Convenant," all the
humiliation and self-abasement, the silence and depend
ence, the suffering and patience, the satisfaction and
merit. He had been doing all the time the things that
pleased His Father, the things that He had made
Himself man to be able to do. Now He is waiting— and
the very waiting is another Act of worship — waiting for
the moment to come when He can take the next step
in His earthly journey, waiting with His Mother
whose intense desire is only second to His Own.

O Emmanuel ! God with us ! I feel that I must go
too to Thy Sacred Courts to-day and make one more
worshipper before that Holy Shrine. Advent is nearly
over, my time of preparation is well-nigh at an end.
What have I to offer as I kneel in adoration ? Feeble
desires, broken resolutions, failure again in the thing I
did so want not to fail in this Advent, good inten
tions, but little else. Dare I come and kneel there
where all is so holy and so perfect ? Yes, for He
is Emmanuel, God incarnate for me. Let me hand
Him through His Mother all my poverty and wretch
edness and weakness and failure, together with my

O EMMANUEL! 129

contrition and repentance and love, and in exchange
He will hand me His forgiveness and the promise to
offer my inadequate worship, together with His own
Divine perfections, to His Father, Who will be satis
fied. This is what Emmanuel means.

POINT II. OUR LAWGIVER.

"The Lord is our Judge, the Lord is our Lawgiver,
the Lord is our King He will save us." (Is. xxxm. 22) .

He is our King, therefore He has a right to make
laws for us. And who could be a better Judge of how
the laws are kept than He Who made them ? Am I afraid
at the sterner aspect which things seem to have taken ?
There is no need, for He is still our Emmanuel, but
He can only be thus our Friend and Companion by
being also the One Who has an absolute right to make
laws for us and to expect our obedience. "You are
My friends, if you do the things I command you"
(St. John xv. 14). The reason for all His titles is that
He wills to save us. He is first of all the Saviour and
then, in order that our salvation may be accom
plished, He makes Himself our King, our Lawgiver and
finally our Judge. "If you love Me, keep My command
ments." Such is our Lawgiver's appeal. Surely His
commandments are not grievous. He Who did always
the things which pleased His Father, asks us to try
to do the same.

O my little Lawgiver, accomplishing so silently
and so perfectly the Will of Thy Father, command
me and I will obey, give Thy orders through whom
Thou wilt ; be they hard or easy, be they in accord
ance with my will or contrary to my whole nature !
I will think of Thy perfect submission to Thy Fa
ther's Will during those nine months for me and will
say: I, too, will do always the things which please
Him no matter what they cost.

130 ORTUS CHRISTI

POINT III. THE EXPECTATION OF THE NATIONS,

JESUS is waiting, Mary is waiting, the Angels are
waiting, all nations, all the earth, and Heaven too
is waiting — waiting for our Emmanuel to come and
save us. The empty manger speaks of the Church's
expectation to-day. We can count the hours now,
all things are ready. Oh ! come and save us ! Come and
begin Thy blessed work over again, come and save
the many who as yet know Thee not and who are
expecting everything this Christmas except a Saviour.
May the sight of the empty crib remind me to look well
into my preparations to-day to see that nothing is
wanting in the welcome I am going to give to the
King!

Colloquy with our Emmanuel. At the Incarnation,
at Thy birth, all through Thy life, Thou didst dwell
with us; on every altar Thou hast promised to be
with us all days ; in Holy Communion Thou hast said
I will dwell with them ; in the hour of death I will
fear no evil for Thou wilt be with me ; and Thou hast
secured Heaven for me by Thy prayer : "Father, I
will that those whom Thou hast given Me be with Me
where I am. "Emmanuel, God with us."

Resolution. Grace to expect Him to-day in all
that I do.

Spiritual Bouquet. O Emmanuel !

CHRISTMAS EVE.

"This day you shall know that the Lord will come and save us :
and in the morning you shall see His glory."

(Ex. xvi. "Introit" for Christmas Eve. ]

ist. Prelude. The stable and the manger waiting
for JESUS.

2nd. Prelude. Grace to make my final preparations.

CHRISTMAS EVE 131

POINT I. MY PREPARATION — LAST TOUCHES.

To-day Mary and Joseph arrive at their journey's
end. We think of them footsore, weary, homeless ;
we think of the discouragement and rebuffs that
they meet with as they hear on all sides that there is
no room for them ; but do we think enough of the in
tense joy that reigned in Mary's heart, a joy communi
cated to her by her Son ? He is rejoicing that His
hour is come ; the very refusals of His people to re
ceive Him and His Mother are to Him a sign that
His work has begun and is already being opposed.
Mary shares His joy ; she is absorbed by one thought
— soon she will look upon His Face - - and that
thought is so great that there is scarcely room for
any other in her heart. And Joseph ? Can we imagine
him anxious and disturbed and worried ? No, it is
impossible — he is with JESUS and Mary, he has lived
his life close to them for nine months, he has imbibed
their spirit. If his joy is not as intense as theirs, his
peace is unruffled ; he has brought the Mother with
her Child to Bethlehem as he was told to do, and he
knows that God will take care of His own.

My first lessons, then, for to-day are apparent.
In the morning I shall see His glory ; the point of
Advent is reached, my preparation is nearly over.
I was told to get ready for Him, I was told to come to
Bethlehem, I have been trying to do so, trying to keep
up with Mary and Joseph on their journey ; often, I
am obliged to admit it, it has been a following afar
off, but still by God's grace, I am following and I
know that to-day He is coming to save us and that
to-morrow I shall see His glory for He will come to
me in Holy Communion. He will be born again in my
heart and make me understand once more that He
is incarnate for me. Are my joy and my peace so
great that nothing has the power to touch them?
There are many occupations that must of necessity

i32 ORTUS CHRISTI

claim my time and my attention to-day, as there
were many coming and going on the roads that led
to Bethlehem ; there are many things to be thought
about in my last preparations for Christmas - - it
was so with Mary and Joseph too. Almost certainly
I shall have to-day, as they had, things that try and
weary me, perhaps suffering, temptation, slights
and even insults. Shall I receive them as last and most
precious opportunities for adding the finishing touches
to my preparation, for gaining a victory where I
have perhaps so recently lost one, for making repar
ation to my King and for uniting myself more closely
to Him and His Mother ? Will the thought that He
is coming be so absorbing that the difficulties of the
way are hardly noticed or are welcome as a reminder
that I too am journeying to Bethlehem ? If I cannot
aspire to the joy of JESUS and Mary, I can at least
aim at the peace of St. Joseph.

POINT II. His PREPARATION.

His preparation is coming to an end too. Let me
go over in my mind once again all that He had to
plan and to do by way of preparation before He could
come to me in Holy Communion. It was for this that
the Incarnation was a preparation. In order to feed
me with His Flesh and Blood, He had to become in
carnate. This is the point of Christmas, and it is the
point of contact between JESUS and my soul. To-morrow
Mary in an ecstasy of joy will look upon His Face and
press Him to her heart ; to-morrow Joseph, full of
awe and wonder, will take Him in his arms ; to-morrow
the Angels will sing their Glorias as they gaze upon their
God incarnate ; to-morrow the shepherds will adore
and offer Him their gifts ; and to-morrow I too shall
touch Him very closely for I shall receive into my
body and into my heart His Body and Blood, His
Soul and His Divinity. He will be with me and I with

CHRISTMAS EVE 133

Him. It is for this that I have been making my pre
parations and it is for this that He has been making
His. How long has He been preparing ? Not only dur
ing Advent, not only during the nine months, not on
ly since the great promise was given in Eden, not
only since the time when there was war among the
Angels because of the Incarnation - - I am getting
beyond time already and farther back than that I
cannot go for my mind is finite ; but His is infinite
and just because it is infinite there never was a time
when the Incarnation was not in His mind, and there
never was a time when I, His child, was not in His
mind, and also there never was a time when He did
not see the blest moments when He should bring the
two into contact and make me understand person
ally what the point of the Incarnation is. These
blest moments are my Communions and surely one of
the most blest must be my Christmas Communion
when He Who comes to me and Who feeds me with
Himself is the Child Who was born at Bethlehem, He
Who had been so long expected, the Seed of the Wo
man, the Orient from on high, the Star of the East,
the Desired One of the nations, the Root of Jesse,
the King of the Gentiles with His Key and His Sceptre,
Emmanuel, God with us.

Colloquy. I kneel at the door of the empty stable and
offer Thee my heart, O my little JESUS ! I have tried
to make room for Thee ; I have made my poor little
preparations with Thy blessed Mother ; I have taken
long journeys to get to Thee; but my body is not fit
to be Thy temple and my heart is treacherous and
faithless. I am ashamed to have so poor a shelter to
offer Thee. If it were not that Thou didst ask for it,
I dare not offer it. Oh ! Thou Who didst not refuse the
manger-bed, come to my heart, look at the contri
tion and the humiliation and the reparation and the
aching longing to be what Thou dost want, and for-

134 ORTUS CHRISTI

get the faithlessness and the failures and the weakness.
Come, my little King, incarnate for me, come and save
me, if I were not a sinner I should not need a Saviour.

Resolution. To keep very near to Mary and Joseph
to-day.

Spiritual Bouquet. "In the morning you shall see
His glory".

BOKSTEL — HOLLAND
ELECTRISCHI DRUKKERIJ WILHELM VAN EUPEN

BX 2182 .87 1921

SMC

St. Paul, Mother,

1861-1940.
Ortus Christ! :

meditations for Advent
AWU-4911 (mcab)